SEPTEMBER
CONTENTS
MUSIC ON SUNDAYS
MIGHTY IMPERIAL RUSSIA!
MAESTRO
QSO & SIMONE YOUNG
2
6
Pre-concert talk at 6.30pm with Thomas Allely
QSO CHAMBER PLAYERS
VILLA-LOBOS AND FRIENDS
Help us G
11
Green.
Please take one program between two
and keep your program for the month.
You can also view and download program notes one
week prior to the performance online at qso.com.au
PROGRAM September 1
SUN 6 SEPT
11.30AM
QPAC Concert Hall
MUSIC ON SUNDAYS
MIGHTY
IMPERIAL
RUSSIA!
Conductor Benjamin Northey
Host Guy Noble
Flute Alexis Kenny
Soloists from the Lisa Gasteen
National Opera School
Soprano Petah Chapman
Baritone Samuel Piper
Proudly presented by
2
PROGRAM September
PROGRAM NOTES
Alexander Borodin
(1833-1887)
Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
(1844-1908)
Scheherazade – The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
(1840-1893)
None but the Lonely Heart
Samuel Piper
Modest Mussorgsky
(1839-1881)
arr. Rimsky-Korsakov
Khovanschina: Prelude (Dawn on the
Moscow River
Sergei Rachmaninov
(1873-1943)
How Fair this Spot
Petah Chapman
Tchaikovsky
Symphony No.4 in F minor Scherzo
(Pizzicato ostinato)
Saverio Mercadante
(1795-1870)
Flute Concerto in E minor
Alexis Kenny
Tchaikovsky
T’will soon be midnight from The Queen
of Spades
Petah Chapman
Tchaikovsky
Imperial Russia began with Peter the
Great’s declaration of the empire in 1721.
The composers Borodin, Tchaikovsky,
Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov were all
born in the reign of Nicholas I, the eleventh
of the undisputed Imperial rulers.
Few musicians of the time were full-time
professional composers. Borodin was actually
an industrial chemist. In fact, the group of
nationalist composers to which Borodin
belonged (the ‘Mighty Handful’ or ‘The Five’
– comprising himself, Mussorgsky, RimskyKorsakov, Cui and Balakirev) made a virtue
of amateurism; what they lacked in polish,
they made up for in ‘authenticity’. Borodin’s
Polovtsian Dances come from his opera
Prince Igor. Polovtsy is the Russian word for
the Turkic or Asiatic people living east of the
Volga river. The Dances remind us that Russia
stretches a long way east.
Of the aforementioned Five, RimskyKorsakov actually became pre-eminent in
orchestration, which he studied while in the
Imperial navy. Rimsky-Korsakov orchestrated
some of The Five’s best-known music.
His own works exhibit the brilliant, clearly
defined colours we expect from Russian
orchestration. Scheherazade also reflects
Russia’s fascination with the East, being
based on stories from The Thousand and
One Nights. In Scheherazade’s first movement
the solo violin represents the Arabic classic’s
narrator, Scheherazade, whose stories
appease her murderous husband night after
night. And then we embark on a portrayal of
Sinbad’s ship at sea; billowing cello figures
in E major, a key Rimsky-Korsakov associated
with dark blue.
Symphony No.5 in E minor Valse
(Allegro moderato)
Mussorgsky
arr. Ravel
Pictures at an Exhibition:
The Hut on Hen’s Legs
The Great Gate of Kiev
PROGRAM September 3
PROGRAM NOTES
We know Tchaikovsky for his symphonies
and ballets, but Russians also knew a composer
of songs, None but the Lonely Heart being
his best-known. The words suggest heartfelt
loss: ‘…only he who has known / the desire to
see his beloved again / can understand what
I have suffered / and what I am suffering’; this
may be why quotation of the song in the exiled
Stravinsky’s ballet The Fairy’s Kiss is so moving.
The Five were based in Saint Petersburg, the
city established by Peter the Great as his
capital along the banks of the Neva in 1703,
but throughout Russian history Moscow has
vied for equal attention. Mussorgsky’s opera
Khovanschina revolves around several plots
against Peter the Great in the 17th century.
The Prelude depicts Moscow as it sleeps, and
the quiet flow of the river … the clang of bells
ringing for matins is heard. The Prelude’s
structure is characteristically Russian;
basically differently coloured variations on a
folk-like tune.
Rachmaninov, born in the reign of Alexander
II, was the only composer on today’s program
to live into the end of the Romanov dynasty
during the Revolutions of 1917. In fact his
family’s estates were confiscated. In 1934,
after he had been living in the West for 16
years, Steinway gave Rachmaninov a new
piano as a gift. The first piece he played on
it was God save the Czar. How Fair this Spot,
a song from 1902, contains words by Glafira
Galina, which could be thought to express
Rachmaninov’s profound love of homeland:
‘It’s beautiful here… / Look, in the distance /
the river gleams like fire; / the meadows are
like a colourful carpet, / white clouds
sail above’.
4
PROGRAM September
Travelling in Switzerland once, Tchaikovsky
wrote to his patron Nadezhda von Meck back
in Russia: ‘Mountains are fine, but I’m dying
for a plain.’ His love of homeland was as
strong as that of The Five and yet he created
masterpieces in the Western (Germanic)
forms. Symphony No.4 of 1877 follows a
Beethovenian program, its first movement
reflecting a struggle against Fate. But the
middle movements provide respite. The most
notable feature of the third movement is its
use of pizzicato strings.
There was a kind of fascination for things
Italian in the Imperial era (think: Tchaikovsky’s
Capriccio italien). The favour was sometimes
returned, with composers drawing on
‘Russian characteristics’ to lend their music
distinct flavour. The Rondo russo finale of
Mercadante’s Flute Concerto in E minor is still
a favourite of flautists. One of the means by
which Mercadante creates a Russian flavour
is through alternating major and minor.
Russia’s most famous authors were also
products of Russia’s Imperial era. Pushkin
(1799-1837) was probably the most significant
for music. Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of
Spades is only one of many operas based on
Pushkin. It was composed in Florence in 44
days. A young officer scares an old woman
to death when he conceals himself in her
bedroom to learn her secret of winning at
cards. Later, her ghost teaches him her secret
but when he plays he finds that he is holding
not the Ace but the Queen of Spades.
T’will soon be midnight occurs in Act III
when the love-interest Lisa waits for
Hermann to appear and convince her that
he wasn’t just using her as a conduit to her
grandmother’s secret.
PROGRAM NOTES
Operas, songs, symphonies – Tchaikovsky
was probably the most versatile Russian
composer of the 19th century. And the last
three of his six symphonies are among
his greatest contributions to the concert
stage. All three follow a program that could
loosely be characterised as struggle against
Fate though each ends slightly differently,
No.5 with a victorious march. Before that,
the third movement is a waltz. Toward its
end, Tchaikovsky quotes an aria by Glinka:
‘Do not turn to despair’, but this dance-like
movement reminds us that Tchaikovsky was
also the greatest composer of ballets, an art
form perfected in Russia’s Imperial age.
Of The Five, Mussorgsky was arguably
the one who possessed the rawest power
and whose authenticity was most vividly
illustrative. Pictures at an Exhibition
originated as a set of piano pieces to
memorialise Mussorgsky’s friend Victor
Hartmann, who had died in 1873. Each
movement is a ‘tone portrait’ of a Hartmann
artwork. The Hut on Hen’s Legs refers to
the design for a clock face in the form of
Baba-Yaga, the witch in Russian folktales,
who lives in such a hut. The massive, blazing
finale reminds us that this music originated
from the Imperial age; The Great Gate of
Kiev was Hartmann’s design for a structure
to commemorate Alexander II’s 1866 escape
from assassination.
Gordon Kalton Williams © 2015
PROGRAM September 5
SAT 12 SEPT
7.30PM
QPAC Concert Hall
MAESTRO SERIES
QSO &
SIMONE
YOUNG
Conductor Simone Young
Soprano Lisa Gasteen
Mahler Rückert Lieder
Mahler Symphony No.6
Free pre-concert talk with
Thomas Allely at 6.30pm
Presented in
association with
6
PROGRAM September
PROGRAM NOTES
Gustav Mahler
(1860-1911)
Rückert Lieder (five songs to poems of
Friedrich Rückert)
Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder
Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft
Um Mitternacht
Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen
Liebst du um Schönheit
Lisa Gasteen soprano
Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866) experienced
the upheavals of Europe during the Napoleonic
wars and held the position of professor
of oriental languages at various German
universities before retiring to the country
to concentrate on poetry.
Mahler started setting poetry by Rückert
in 1901, at the same time as he began work
on his Fifth Symphony, and ultimately
produced two sets of songs to Rückert’s
verse. The Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the
Death of Children) has been described as
Mahler’s greatest song-cycle, though at the
time he was accused of ‘self-tormenting
exhibitionism’. The poetry grew out of
Rückert’s own grief at the loss of his two
children. Mahler responds in music that
memorialises his own brother who died in
childhood. ‘It hurt me to write them,’ Mahler
said of the songs, ‘and I grieve for the world
which will one day have to hear them.’
Mahler also worked on setting a further group
of five Rückert poems. He published them as
separate works (for voice and piano initially),
but after his death a publisher grouped them
together with two songs from Des Knaben
Wunderhorn (the collection of folk-poetry
which so inspired the composer) and, with
the benefit of hindsight, named them Sieben
Lieder aus letzter Zeit – effectively, ‘Seven
Last Songs’. The five Rückert Lieder do
not constitute a song-cycle, in that there
is no overarching narrative as in Schubert’s
Winterreise, or central theme as in the
Kindertotenlieder. The songs can therefore be
sung in whatever order the soloist decides.
There are some recurrent poetic ideas,
however, one of which is the subject of the
first of the songs to be composed. Blicke
mir nicht in die Lieder (Do not look into my
songs) dramatises the conviction of many
artists that a poem or song should not be
seen until it is finished, and that the work
itself should happen in secrecy, as bees make
honey in the privacy of their hive. Mahler, of
course, can’t resist the gentle evocation of
bees in the song’s accompaniment.
Always sensitive to the beauties of the
natural environment, Mahler then set Ich
atmet’ einen linden Duft (I breathed the
scent of linden); the poet describes entering
a room where a sprig from a linden (or limetree), picked by the beloved, is filling the
house with the fragrance of love. The delicacy
of the orchestration and the seemingly
rhapsodic form of the song beautifully
represent the subtlety of the scent and the
fragility of the emotion.
Um Mitternacht (At Midnight) dramatises
the soul’s experience of existential despair in
imagery of an empty universe and eternally
suffering humanity. Mahler eschews any
orchestral warmth by omitting the string
sections from this song.
PROGRAM September 7
PROGRAM NOTES
The climax of the song (and its power is
such that it is frequently placed last in
performance) arrives as the poet commends
all things into the hand of God. Arguably
Mahler’s greatest single song, Ich bin der
Welt abhanden gekommen (I am lost to the
world) is, like Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder,
about the artist’s necessary withdrawal from
the world in order to make art. Mahler, of
course, was one of the busiest and most
visible musicians of his time, making time to
compose only during his precious summer
vacations. But this song makes clear how
single-minded an artist must be; the reward
for creation is to live alone ‘in my heaven …
my devotion … my song’. The melody of this
song is used in heavily modified form in the
famous Adagietto of the Fifth Symphony, and
its plangent opening pages look forward to
the ecstatic dissolution of Das Lied von
der Erde (1911).
Liebst du um Schönheit (If you love for
beauty) offers sets of short stanzas, matched
by Mahler’s strophic musical form, in which
the poet admits he can’t offer beauty or
treasure to the beloved but will love for
love’s sake, faithfully and forever.
Gordon Kerry © 2007
Poems of Friedrich Rückert
(sung in German)
Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder
Do not look at my songs!
My eyes are lowered as if
caught in a malicious act.
Even I do not dare
to watch them as they grow:
your inquisitiveness is treason!
Bees too, when building their cells
let no-one behold them,
neither do they perceive themselves.
When the rich honeycomb
is hauled into the light of day
then you shall be the first to taste the sweetness.
8
PROGRAM September
Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft
I breathed a gentle fragrance.
In the room stood
a branch of a lime tree,
a gift
from a dear hand.
How lovely was the lime fragrance!
How lovely is the lime fragrance!
The sprig
from the lime tree
you plucked so gently;
softly I breathed
Love’s delicate fragrance.
Um Mitternacht
At midnight
I awoke
and looked up to the Heavens;
no star in the busy firmament
smiled on me
at midnight.
At midnight
my thoughts
stretched out beyond the darkness
and no friendly light
brought consolation to me
at midnight.
At midnight
I heeded
the beating of my heart;
a single pulse of pain
was roused
at midnight.
At midnight
I fought the battle,
O humanity, of your suffering,
but could not resolve it
with my
strength
at midnight.
At midnight
I gave up all my strength
into your hand;
Lord over death and life,
You keep watch
at midnight!
PROGRAM NOTES
Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen
I have lost touch with the world
where once too much time I wasted.
For so long has nothing been heard of me
that those who think of me imagine me dead.
It is nothing to me
that they think me dead.
I cannot say that they are wrong,
for truly I am dead to the world.
I am dead to the world’s tumult
and rest in calm domains.
I live alone in my heaven
in my devotion, in my song.
Liebst du um Schönheit
If you love for beauty, do not love me!
Love the sun, with its golden hair!
If you love for youth, do not love me!
Love the Spring, which is young every year!
If you love for treasure, then do not love me!
Love the mermaid, who has many bright pearls!
If you love for love, oh yes, then love me!
Love me always, as I will always love you!
Translations by David Vivian Russell
Symphony Australia © 2000
Gustav Mahler
(1860-1911)
Symphony No.6 in A minor
Allegro energico, ma non troppo.
Heftig, aber markig
Scherzo: Wuchtig
Andante moderato
Finale: Sostenuto – Allegro moderato –
Allegro energico
Like Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben,
Mahler’s Sixth Symphony has a ‘hero’ who
faces an inexorable fate, but offers no sense
of comfort or victory. It is the work, as Mahler
put it, of ‘an old fashioned composer’, cast in
a traditional four-movement design.
From the outset, though, its tone – which led
to the occasional use, even in Mahler’s time,
of the nickname Tragic – is unambiguous.
A fully scored A major chord, underpinned
by an obsessive rhythmic motif from the
timpani, fades and, as it fades, changes to
the minor mode. This is music which will
end in darkness. The movement begins as a
march, though as scholar Michael Kennedy
puts it, ‘modern music [that] marches in with
this sinister tramping start’. The movement’s
starkly contrasting second subject is a lyrical
tune which rises and falls largely by step.
Mahler’s not always reliable widow Alma
describes how on their summer vacation in
1902 when Mahler began work on the piece
‘after he had drafted the first movement, he
came down from [his study in the woods] to
tell me he had tried to express me in a theme.
“Whether I've succeeded, I don't know; but
you'll have to put up with it.” Its contour
and mood certainly relate to any number of
Romantic love-themes. Mahler’s treatment
of it, too, reminds one of Berlioz’s use of
the Beloved’s idée fixe in the Symphonie
fantastique: it is always slightly varied on
each appearance. In any event, the
yearning lyricism provides a perfect foil
for the implacable march with which the
movement begins – ‘change and conflict are
the secret of effective music’, as Mahler said.
There is a celebrated evocation of alpine
scenery toward the end of the movement,
which Mahler described as the ‘last earthly
sounds heard from the valley below by the
departing spirit on the mountain top’.
The Scherzo has an insistent rhythm to
begin with, and there is much Mahlerian irony,
both in the dry clattering of the xylophone
and in what Kennedy calls the ‘delicate
pastiche Haydn’. The oboe conjures up an
innocent, rustic world, and the metrical
changes – described by Mahler as altväterlich
(literally ‘old-fatherly’) – may recall a
Bohemian folk song.
PROGRAM September 9
PROGRAM NOTES
The Scherzo has been interpreted as
‘diabolical’ and ‘catastrophic’ on one hand,
where Alma’s reminiscences insist that it
depicts the ‘tottering’ of their children at play
before the intrusion of tragedy at the end
of the movement. The Andante represents a
complete contrast with both the Scherzo and
the finale, but despite its thematic reference
to Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the
Death of Children), the tone is hardly tragic.
Rather, with its horn calls and reminiscence
of the cowbells it is poignant and romantic,
a relaxation of the tension before the
turbulence of the finale.
This is one of Mahler’s largest and most
complex structures, and it bears the weight
of the whole symphony, recalling material
from earlier in the work. Its introductory
section contains much of the material
that will be developed as the movement
unfolds, particularly the impassioned melody
heard first high in the violins. It depicts
a nightmarish world, where the Allegro
energico builds intense excitement and
momentum, straining towards climactic
release, only to be brutally interrupted on
three occasions. Mahler originally included
a sickening thud ‘like an axe-stroke’ at each
of these points, but later omitted the third
out of superstition. Mahler himself said that
the movement describes ‘the hero on whom
falls three blows of fate, the last of which
fells him as a tree is felled’. The piece ends in
dissolution: drum roles, fragmentary motifs,
a baleful and comfortless A minor.
Abridged from a note by Gordon Kerry
© 2006
We’re Australia’s business energy company
and our focus is always on delivering our
best performance for your business.
Visit ermbusinessenergy.com.au
Proud sponsors of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra,
always raising the bar for their audience.
10Market
PROGRAM
*Utility
IntelligenceSeptember
(UMI) survey of large customers of major electricity retailers by independent research company NTF Group in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.
SUN 27 SEPT
3PM
QSO Studio
QSO CHAMBER PLAYERS
VILLALOBOS AND
FRIENDS
Antheil Symphony for
Five Instruments
Villa-Lobos Chôros No.7
Schulhoff Concertino for Flute,
Viola and Double Bass
Hindemith Octet
Flute Hayley Radke
Bassoon Nicole Tait
Trumpet Richard Madden
Trombone Dale Truscott
Viola Bernard Hoey
Viola Cédric David
Clarinet Brian Catchlove
Bassoon Glenn Prohasky
Violin Rebecca Seymour
Cello Matthew Kinmont
Oboe Vivienne Brooke
Clarinet Irit Silver
French Horn Lauren Manuel
Viola Nicholas Tomkin
Cello Katherine Philp
Double Bass Justin Bullock
Double Bass Dushan Walkowicz
PROGRAM September 11
PROGRAM NOTES
George Antheil
(1900-1959)
Symphony for Five Instruments
Allegro
Lento
Presto
Heitor Villa-Lobos
(1887-1959)
Chôros No.7, ‘Setemino’
Erwin Schulhoff
(1894-1942)
Concertino for Flute, Viola and Double-bass
Andante con moto
Furiant: Allegro furioso
Andante
Rondino: Allegro gaio
Paul Hindemith
(1895-1963)
Octet
Breit: Mässig schnell
Varianten: Mässig bewegt
Langsam
Sehr lebhaft
Fuge und drei altmodische Tänze:
Walzer, Polka, Galopp
After study in New York and Philadelphia,
George Antheil travelled to Europe in 1922,
performing piano recitals in London, settling
first in Berlin and then in Paris the following
year. In Berlin he had met Stravinsky, whom
he idolised, and the music he composed until
the mid-1920s brought together the emphatic
metrical organisation of Stravinsky’s early
work with some of the preoccupations of
interwar Paris, namely the mildly dissonant
harmony of neo-classicism (though he hated
the term) and jazz, and a fascination with
the age of the machine. (He was something
of an inventor himself, and teamed up with
Hollywood star Hedy Lamarr in the 1940s
to create ‘frequency hopping’, a way of
radio-controlling airborne missiles.)
12
PROGRAM September
His breakthrough work, the Ballet mécanique
of 1926, established him, albeit briefly, as a
major new voice, but then became the curse
that successful works, like Barber’s Adagio
or Rachmaninov’s C-sharp minor Prelude,
did for their composers. The Symphony for
Five Instruments calls for an ensemble with
which it is practically impossible to lapse into
Romantic comfort. Composed in 1922 and
revised the following year, it is symphonic in
the same way as the Symphonies of Wind
Instruments by Stravinsky, whose influence,
alongside that of Erik Satie, is palpable.
It is cast in a three-movement design.
The opening Allegro does not develop
material in any classical sense, but
‘jump cuts’ provide a constant sense of
contrast supported by insistent rhythm.
Notwithstanding the astringent make-up of
the ensemble, the central Lento has a cool
lyricism with melodies spun out of gently
reiterated and gradually modified motifs.
The finale returns to the knockabout world
of circus music.
Like Antheil, Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos was
drawn to Paris in the early 1920s and there
established himself as composer who fused
the contemporary – that is, Stravinskian
– aesthetic with the sounds and rhythms
of his native country. This, well before the
Bachianas brasileiras, he achieved with a
series of solo, vocal and chamber works
called Chôros. The Chôro refers to an urban
popular music that developed in Rio de
Janeiro in the late 19th century; the word
signifies a lament, but the character of such
works tends in fact to be up-tempo, with
bouts of instrumental improvisation.
Chôros No.7, composed in 1924, is an
instrumental septet in a single ten-minute
movement that is made up of a series of
largely dance-inspired episodes. Higher wind
instruments, in particular, have often-florid
solo lines. Setting off the rhythmic energy are
slower, more lyrical sections, and Villa-Lobos
is able to draw often surprisingly rich and
colourful textures from the ensemble.
PROGRAM NOTES
When Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff
died of tuberculosis in a Nazi concentration
camp his music nearly died with him.
Declared entartete Musik (degenerate
music) by the regime, his work was only
rediscovered in the 1980s. Schulhoff’s earliest
music shows the influences of the major
trends in early 20th-century music, and his
brief period of study with Debussy in 1913 left
its mark permanently. World War I, in which
he served as a soldier for four years, led
Schulhoff to reject Romanticism as tainted,
and he embraced the expressionism of
Schoenberg, Dadaism, and jazz.
Schulhoff had lived, studied and worked
in various German cities until the early
1920s, when he returned to Prague, the
city of his birth. It was there that Dvořák
had recommended a career in music for
Schulhoff; the folk elements that were so
important to such composers as Dvořák and
Janáček were still present in Prague’s musical
life, and found their way into Schulhoff’s
subsequent work. Composed in 1925, the
Concertino brings a number of these musical
preoccupations together. Despite its relative
brevity, it deserves the title, as each of the
three players are treated as soloists, as well
as constantly combining to form a wonderful
array of accompanying textures.
The first movement is the most expansive,
finding room for deceptively simple melodies,
echoes of Debussy (especially in the flute
writing) and the alternation of pensive and
frenetic passages. The short furiant, a dance
form much loved by Dvořák, has a mercurial
charm, enhanced by the use of piccolo; while
the following Andante conjures something of
the harmonic and contrapuntal strangeness
found in Viennese music on the cusp of
Romanticism and atonality. This mood is,
however, swept away by another energetic
dance in the final Rondino.
The Stravinskian neo-classicism that was
so pervasive in Paris was very often ironic
in tone. Paul Hindemith also cultivated
‘classical’ forms and techniques like Bachian
counterpoint, and in his early works used a
harmony (often featuring the interval of the
fourth) that had a bracing quality. But as a
German his relationship to the Bachian and
Viennese traditions was different from those
of his French or Russian émigré colleagues;
it is as if for Hindemith the forms of classical
music constituted real German values as the
nation became infected by Nazism in the
1930s. Hindemith’s dislike of fascism and his
efforts to help German Jews escape led to
his being black-banned by the Nazis as a
standard-bearer for entartete Musik.
He himself escaped to Switzerland and
then to the USA with the outbreak of war.
The Octet, for an ensemble that stresses
warm timbres, is the last of a great many
chamber works and was composed in 1957,
in Switzerland (to which Hindemith had
returned). It comes after the completion of
his opera Die Harmonie der Welt, about the
great astronomer Kepler. In five movements,
it perhaps shares the opera’s faith in an
ordered universe.
A strong opening of full chords and
something like Beethoven’s ‘fate’ motif
leads to a movement of rigorous ‘Baroque’
counterpoint. The lively second movement
has numerous inspired touches, like the use
of pale, strong tones in the final section. The
substantial slow movement often features the
horn. The fourth movement does service as a
scherzo, with hiccupping motifs punctuating
more elaborate melody and counterpoint.
The finale has a Brahmsian solidity in its fugal
sections, leavened by the loving humour of
the (not so) old-fashioned dances and the
punch-line ending.
© Gordon Kerry 2015
PROGRAM September 13
14
PROGRAM September
BIOGRAPHIES
Benjamin Northey
Guy Noble
Since returning to Australia from Europe in
2006, Benjamin Northey has rapidly emerged
as one of the nation’s leading musical
figures. He is currently Chief Conductor
of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra
and Associate Conductor of the Melbourne
Symphony Orchestra.
Guy Noble is one of Australia’s most versatile
conductors and musical entertainers,
conducting and presenting concerts
with all the major Australian orchestras
and performers such as The Beach Boys,
Yvonne Kenny, David Hobson, Ben Folds,
Dianne Reeves, Randy Newman, and Clive
James. He has cooked live on stage with
Maggie Beer and Simon Bryant (The Cook,
The Chef and the Orchestra, Adelaide
Symphony) appeared as Darth Vader (The
Music of John Williams, Sydney Symphony)
and might be the only person to have ever
sung the Ghostbusters theme live on stage
accompanied by The Whitlams (Queensland
Symphony Orchestra). Guy is a regular guest
presenter on ABC Classic FM, conducted
La Boheme throughout Queensland with
(Opera Queensland and Queensland
Symphony Orchestra), hosts and
accompanies Great Opera Hits (Opera
Australia) writes a column for Limelight
Magazine, presents the inflight classical
channels on Qantas, Air China, China Airlines
and Gulf Air, and is very pleased to be back
as host of Music of Sundays.
Conductor
Northey studied with John Hopkins at the
University of Melbourne Conservatorium of
Music and then with Jorma Panula and Leif
Segerstam at Finland’s Sibelius Academy.
He has conducted the London Philharmonic
Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg,
Hong Kong Philharmonic, National Symphony
Orchestra of Colombia, New Zealand
Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia
and the Southbank Sinfonia of London.
2014 engagements included Carmen for
Opera Australia, Into the Woods for
Victorian Opera, Malaysian Philharmonic, New
Zealand Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia,
Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland, Tasmanian
and West Australian Symphony Orchestras
and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra; in
2015, he will return to all the major Australian
orchestras, the HKPO, the NZSO and conduct
Turandot for Opera Australia.
Host
PROGRAM September 15
BIOGRAPHIES
Professionals from Australia and overseas
coach advanced classical voice students and
young professionals in a unique, intensive
four week program that includes repertoire
classes, voice lessons, music coaching,
practical musicianship and language skills.
Alexis Kenny
Flute
Alexis Kenny is Section Principal Flute with
the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and has
also performed with Orchestra Victoria and
the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra,
Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian
Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia
Orchestra, and the Schleswig-Holstein
Festival Orchestra. She has been awarded
numerous scholarships and prizes, including
a Churchill Fellowship. As a recipient of an
Australia Council Artist Development grant
and a Brisbane City Council Lord Mayor’s
Young and Emerging Artists Fellowship,
Alexis was granted leave from QSO to study
with Berlin Philharmonic flautist, Prof. Michael
Hasel, and to research orchestra training
programs in 2012. She has performed with
Eighth Blackbird, Southern Cross Soloists and
Topology, and has appeared on the debut
albums of george, and The Basics. Alexis has
tutored for the Australian Youth Orchestra,
including at National Music Camp, and
lectured at the Queensland Conservatorium
Griffith University. She will be a guest artist
at the Australian Flute Festival in October.
Internationally acclaimed Wagnerian
soprano Lisa Gasteen has established
The Lisa Gasteen National Opera School
to provide elite opera coaching comparable
to that of the best schools in Europe and
North America.
16
PROGRAM September
The Queensland Symphony Orchestra has
a partnership with the School and offers
selected young singers performance
opportunities in a number of series, including
Music on Sundays, Specials and in concerts in
regional Queensland.
Simone Young
Conductor
Simone Young, AM, was General Manager and
Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera
and Music Director of the Philharmonic State
Orchestra Hamburg from 2005 – 2015. She is
an acknowledged interpreter of Wagner and
Strauss operas, having conducted Der Ring
des Nibelungen at the Vienna Staatsoper, the
Berlin Staatsoper and Hamburg. Her Hamburg
recordings include the Ring cycle and
symphonies of Bruckner, Brahms and Mahler.
Simone Young has been Music Director
of Opera Australia, Chief Conductor of
the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and
Principal Guest Conductor of the Gulbenkian
Orchestra, Lisbon. She regularly conducts at
leading opera houses and orchestras around
the world including the Vienna, Berlin, New
York and London Philharmonic Orchestras,
and Staatskapelle Dresden.
Amongst her many accolades are a Professorship
at the Musikhochschule, Hamburg, Honorary
Doctorates from Griffith and Monash Universities
and UNSW, Green Room and Helpmann Awards,
and the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des
Lettres, France.
BIOGRAPHIES
Royal Opera, Covent Garden; The Bastille,
Paris; and the State Opera Companies of
Vienna, Stuttgart and Berlin to name a few.
Lisa Gasteen
Soprano
Prior to taking the Chair of Practice
Professor of Opera at the Queensland
Conservatorium of Music, Griffith University
in 2011, Lisa Gasteen had become one of the
world’s most sought after interpreters of the
dramatic German repertoire.
Best known for her performances of
Brünnhilde, Isolde and Electra she was a
regular guest at the major opera houses
including Metropolitan Opera, New York;
Her concert repertoire includes Beethoven’s
9th Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Handel’s
Messiah, Verdi’s Requiem and extensive lieder
including Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder.
Lisa has won many other awards including
the 1992 Advance Australia Award, 3
Helpmann Awards and the 2002 Sidney Meyer
Performing Arts Individual Award. She was
appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia
(AO) in 2006 for her services to the Arts.
In 2011 Lisa established The Lisa Gasteen
National Opera School, located at the
Queensland Conservatorium of Music,
Griffith University, Brisbane, to help, mentor
and develop the skills and progress of
Australian operatic singers and répétiteurs.
PROGRAM September 17
Sofitel Breakfast Drive
A luxurious family escape
This Spring school holidays, experience the best of Brisbane with
gorgeous weather, exciting events and abundant cultural
attractions all on Sofitel Brisbane Central's doorstep.
The Sofitel Breakfast Drive package includes:
Overnight accommodation
Buffet Breakfast for two adults and two children *
Self Drive Car-Park
Welcome Drink **
FROM $250 per room per night
Valid September 18th - October 5th Inclusive
Reservations via [email protected] on 07 3835 3535
PLEASE MENTION THIS OFFER WHEN BOOKING
*Children under 12 years old
** Valid for local beer, house wine or non-alcoholic beverage.
CHAIR DONORS
Chair Donors support an individual musician’s role within the orchestra
and gain fulfilment through personal interactions with their chosen musician.
CONCERTMASTER
Warwick Adeney
Prof. Ian Frazer AC
& Mrs Caroline Frazer
Cathryn Mittelheuser AM
John Story AO &
Georgina Story
ASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER
Alan Smith
Arthur Waring
FIRST VIOLIN
Stephen Phillips
Dr Graham & Mrs Kate Row
Rebecca Seymour
Ashley Harris
Brenda Sullivan
Heidi and Hans Rademacher
Anonymous
Stephen Tooke
Tony & Patricia Keane
SECTION PRINCIPAL
SECOND VIOLIN
Wayne Brennan
Arthur Waring
SECOND VIOLIN
Delia Kinmont
Jordan & Pat Pearl
Natalie Low
Dr Ralph & Mrs Susan Cobcroft
Helen Travers
Elinor & Tony Travers
VIOLA
Charlotte Burbrook de Vere
Di Jameson
Graham Simpson
Alan Galwey
ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL
DOUBLE BASS
Dushan Walkowicz
Sophie Galaise
DOUBLE BASS
Justin Bullock
Michael Kenny &
David Gibson
Sarah Butler
Mrs Andrea Kriewaldt
ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL
TRUMPET
SECTION PRINCIPAL FLUTE
TRUMPET
Alexis Kenny
Dr Damien Thomson
& Dr Glenise Berry
Paul Rawson
Barry, Brenda, Thomas
& Harry Moore
ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL FLUTE
SECTION PRINCIPAL
TROMBONE
Hayley Radke
Desmond B Misso Esq
PRINCIPAL OBOE
Huw Jones
Helen & Michael Sinclair
ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL OBOE
Sarah Meagher
Sarah and Mark Combe
OBOE
Alexa Murray
Dr Les & Ms Pam Masel
SECTION PRINCIPAL CLARINET
Irit Silver
Arthur Waring
CLARINET
Kate Travers
Dr Julie Beeby
SECTION PRINCIPAL
BASSOON
David Lale
Arthur Waring
ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL
BASSOON
CELLO
David Mitchell
John & Helen Keep
Matthew Kinmont
Dr Julie Beeby
SECTION PRINCIPAL TRUMPET
Richard Madden
Elinor & Tony Travers
SECTION PRINCIPAL CELLO
Andre Duthoit
Anne Shipton
Lauren Manuel
Gaelle Lindrea
Paul O'Brien
Roslyn Carter
Nicole Tait
In memory of Margaret
Mittelheuser AM
Kathryn Close
Dr Graham & Mrs Kate Row
FRENCH HORN
SECTION PRINCIPAL
FRENCH HORN
Malcolm Stewart
Arthur Waring
Jason Redman
Frances & Stephen Maitland
OAM RFD
ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL
TROMBONE
Dale Truscott
Peggy Allen Hayes
PRINCIPAL TUBA
Thomas Allely
Arthur Waring
PRINCIPAL HARP
Jill Atkinson
Noel & Geraldine Whittaker
PRINCIPAL TIMPANI
Tim Corkeron
Dr Philip Aitken &
Dr Susan Urquhart
Peggy Allen Hayes
SECTION PRINCIPAL
PERCUSSION
David Montgomery
Dr Graham & Mrs Kate Row
PERCUSSION
Josh DeMarchi
Dr Graham & Mrs Kate Row
Thank you
PROGRAM September 19
DONORS
Queensland Symphony Orchestra is proud to acknowledge the generosity
and support of our valued donors.
PATRON ($100,000+)
Timothy Fairfax AC
Tim Fairfax Family Foundation
Harold Mitchell AC
Cathryn Mittelheuser AM
The Pidgeon Family
John B Reid AO and
Lynn Rainbow Reid
T & J St Baker Charitable Trust
Arthur Waring
Noel and Geraldine Whittaker
Anonymous
MAESTRO
($50,000 - $99,999)
Philip Bacon Galleries
Bank of Queensland
Prof. Ian Frazer AC and
Mrs Caroline Frazer
Jellinbah Group
Mrs Beverley June Smith
John Story AO and
Georgina Story
Greg and Jan Wanchap
SYMPHONY
($20,000 - $49,999)
Dr Philip Aitken and
Dr Susan Urquhart
Dr Julie Beeby
English Family Prize
Peggy Allen Hayes
Leonie Henry
Mrs Andrea Kriewaldt
Frances and Stephen
Maitland OAM RFD
Desmond B Misso Esq.
In memory of
Margaret Mittelheuser AM
Justice Anthe Philippides
Dr Graham and Mrs Kate Row
Dr Damien Thomson and
Dr Glenise Berry
Rodney Wylie
Anonymous
20
PROGRAM September
CONCERTO
($10,000 - $19,999)
David and Judith Beal
Mrs Roslyn Carter
Dr Ralph and
Mrs Susan Cobcroft
Mrs I.L. Dean
Tony Denholder and
Scott Gibson
Dr and Mrs W.R. Heaslop
Gwenda Heginbothom
Ms Marie Isackson
John and Helen Keep
M. Lejeune
Dr Les and Ms Pam Masel
Page and Marichu Maxson
Ian Paterson
Mr Jordan and Mrs Pat Pearl
Heidi and Hans Rademacher
Anne Shipton
Elinor and Tony Travers
Anonymous (2)
SCHERZO ($5,000 - $9,999)
Trudy Bennett
Mrs Valma Bird
Dr John and Mrs Jan Blackford
Dr Betty Byrne Henderson AM
Dr John H. Casey
Mrs Elva Emmerson
Sophie Galaise
Alan Galwey
Dr Edgar Gold AM, QC and
Dr Judith Gold CM
Prof. Ian Gough AM and
Dr Ruth Gough
Dr Edward C. Gray
Fred and Maria Hansen
Ashley Harris
Dr Alison Holloway
The Helene Jones Charity Trust
Tony and Patricia Keane
Michael Kenny and
David Gibson
Mr John Martin
Barry, Brenda, Thomas
and Harry Moore
Kathy and Henry Nowik
In memory of Mr and
Mrs J.C. Overell
Helen and Michael Sinclair
Mrs Gwen Warhurst
Prof. Hans and
Mrs Frederika Westerman
Anonymous
RONDO ($1,000 - $4,999)
Jill Atkinson
Emeritus Professor
Cora V. Baldock
Dr Geoffrey Barnes and
in memory of
Mrs Elizabeth Barnes
Prof. Margaret Barrett
Brett Boon
Professors Catherin Bull AM
and Dennis Gibson AO
M. Burke
Mrs Georgina Byrom
Peter and Tricia Callaghan
Mrs J. A. Cassidy
Drew and Christine Castley
Greg and Jacinta Chalmers
Cherrill and David Charlton
Ian and Penny Charlton
Robert Cleland
Sarah and Mark Combe
Roger Cragg
Julie Crozier and Peter Hopson
Ms D.K. Cunningham
Dr Beverley Czerwonka-Ledez
Justice Martin Daubney
Laurie James Deane
Ralph Doherty
In memory of
Mrs Marjorie Douglas
Garth and Floranne Everson
Dr Bertram and
Mrs Judith Frost
C.M. and I.G. Furnival
Dr Joan E. Godfrey, OBE
Lea and John Greenaway
Yvonne Hansen
Madeleine Harasty
David Hardidge
Harp Society of Queensland Inc
Lisa Harris
Ted and Frances Henzell
Patrick and Enid Hill
Prof. Ken Ho and Dr Tessa Ho
Jenny Hodgson
Sylvia Hodgson
John Hughes
Miss Lynette Hunter
Sandra Jeffries and Brian Cook
John and Wendy Jewell
Ainslie Just
Dr Colin and Mrs Noela
Kratzing
Sabina Langenhan
Dr Frank Leschhorn
Rachel Leung
Shirley Leuthner
Gaelle Lindrea
Lynne and Franciose Lip
Prof. Andrew and
Mrs Kate Lister
Mary Lyons and John Fardon
Susan Mabin
Rose-Marie Malyon
Belinda McKay and
Cynthia Parrill
Annalisa and Tony Meikle
In memory of Jolanta Metter
In memory of Carol Mills
Mr and Mrs G.D. Moffett
B and D Moore
Martin Moynihan AO QC
and Marg O’Donnell AO
Howard and Katherine Munro
Karen Murphy
John and Robyn Murray
Ron and Marise Nilsson
Tina Previtera
Dr Phelim Reilly
Mr Dennis Rhind
In memory of Pat Riches
Rod and Joan Ross
Professor Michael Schuetz,
Honorary Consul of Germany
Chris and Judith Schull
Bernard and
Margaret Spilsbury
M.A. Stevenson
John and Jennifer Stoll
Barb and Dan Styles
Mrs Helen Tully
William Turnbull
H.R. Venton
Mr Ian and Mrs Hannah Wilkey
Margaret and Robert Williams
Gillian Wilton
Jeanette Woodyatt
Anonymous (44)
VARIATIONS ($500 - $999)
Mrs Penny Ackland
Warwick Adeney
Julieanne Alroe
Don Barrett
Manus Boyce
Deidre Brown
Mrs Verna Cafferky
Alison G. Cameron
W.R. and H. Castles
Dr Alice Cavanagh
Dr C. Davison
R.R & B.A Garnett
Graeme and Jan George
Hans Gottlieb
Shirley Heeney
Richard Hodgson
Anna Jones
Miss Dulcie Little
The Honourable Justice
J.A. Logan, RFD
Jim and Maxine MacMillan
In memory of
Mr David Morwood
T. and M.M. Parkes
Charles and Brenda Pywell
Martin and Margot Quinn
Patience M. Stevens
Katherine Trent
Tanya Viano
Anonymous (30)
JOHN FARNSWORTH
HALL CIRCLE
Named in honour of the first
Chief Conductor of QSO
(1947-1954)
Roberta Bourne Henry
All enquiries, please call
Gaelle Lindrea on
(07) 3833 5050
Instruments on loan
QSO thanks the National
Instrument Bank and The
NFA Anthony Camden Fund
for their generous loan of fine
instruments to the recitalists
of our English Family Prize
for Young Instrumentalists.
Thank you
Please contact Gaelle Lindrea on 07 3833 5050, or you can donate online at qso.com.au/donatenow
All donations over $2 are tax deductible ABN 97 094 916 444
For a list of Building for the Future donors go to qso.com.au/giving/ourdonors
PROGRAM September 21
QUEENSLAND
SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA
CELLO
PATRON
VIOLIN 1
His Excellency the
Stephen Tooke^
David Lale~
Honourable Paul de
Linda Carello
Kathryn Close David Mitchell>>
Jersey AC, Governor
Lynn Cole
Andre Duthoit
Evan Lewis
of Queensland
Emily Francis
Matthew Jones
Nicole Hammill
Matthew Kinmont
Priscilla Hocking
Kaja Skorka
Ann Holtzapffel
Craig Allister Young
CONDUCTOR LAUREATE
Johannes Fritzsch
ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR
Stephen Phillips
Natalia Raspopova
Rebecca Seymour
SOLOIST-IN-RESIDENCE
Shlomo Mintz
CONCERTMASTER
Warwick Adeney
ASSOCIATE
CONCERTMASTER
Alan Smith
Joan Shih
Brenda Sullivan
Brynley White
Bernard Hoey=
OBOE
Huw Jones~
Sarah Meagher>>
Alexa Murray
COR ANGLAIS
Vivienne Brooke*
CLARINET
Irit Silver~
Kirsten Hulin-Bobart
Helen Poggioli
*
^
Hayley Radke
>>
Jann Keir-Haantera+
Tara Houghton
>>
+
Alexis Kenny~
Charlotte Burbrook de Vere
Cédric David
Richard Madden=
Paul Rawson+
Kate Lawson*
VIOLA
TRUMPET
Mark Bremner
Delia Kinmont
Harold Wilson
=
Paul O’Brien
PICCOLO
Helen Travers
~
Justin Bullock
Simon Dobrenko
Tim Marchmont
Ian O’Brien*
Lauren Manuel
Anne Buchanan
FLUTE
Natalie Low
Peter Luff>>
Vivienne Collier-Vickers
Wayne Brennan~
Faina Dobrenko
Malcolm Stewart~
Dushan Walkowicz=
Ken Poggioli
Jane Burroughs
FRENCH HORN
DOUBLE BASS
VIOLIN 2
Gail Aitken~
BASSOON
Nicole Tait~
TROMBONE
Jason Redman~
Dale Truscott>>
BASS TROMBONE
Tom Coyle*
TUBA
Thomas Allely*
HARP
Jill Atkinson*
TIMPANI
Tim Corkeron*
PERCUSSION
Brian Catchlove+
David Montgomery~
Kate Travers
Josh DeMarchi>>
Graham Simpson
BASS CLARINET
Nicholas Tomkin
Nicholas Harmsen*
Section Principal
Acting Section Principal
Associate Principal
Acting Associate Principal
Principal Acting Principal
The Soloist-in-Residence program is supported by the T & J St Baker Charitable Trust.
The Assistant Conductor program is supported through the Johannes Fritzsch Fund and Symphony Services International.
22
PROGRAM September
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Greg Wanchap Chairman
Margaret Barrett
Tony Denholder
Tony Keane
John Keep
Page Maxson
James Morrison AM
Karen Murphy
Rod Pilbeam
QUEENSLAND PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE
PO Box 3567, South Bank, Queensland 4101
T (07) 3840 7444 W qpac.com.au
CHAIR
Chris Freeman AM
DEPUTY CHAIR
Rhonda White AO
MANAGEMENT
TRUSTEES
Sophie Galaise
Chief Executive Officer
Ros Atkinson
Executive Assistant to CEO
Richard Wenn
Director – Artistic Planning
Michael SterzingerArtistic Administration
Manager
Nadia MyersAssistant Artistic Administrator
Fiona Lale
Artist Liaison
Matthew FarrellDirector – Community
Engagement and
Commercial Projects
Nina Logan
Orchestra Manager
Helen Davies
Operations Assistant
Judy Wood
Orchestra Librarian/
WHS Coordinator
Nadia MyersLibrary and Operations
Assistant
Peter LaughtonOperations and Projects
Manager
Vince Scuderi
Production Coordinator
John Nolan Community Engagement
Officer
Pam Lowry
Education Liaison Officer
Karen Soennichsen Director – Marketing
Sarah Perrott
Marketing Manager
Zoe White
Digital Marketing Specialist
Miranda Cass
Marketing Coordinator
David Martin
Director – Corporate
Development & Sales
Katya Melendez
Corporate Relationships
Manager
Emma RuleTicketing Services Manager
George Browning
Sales Officer
Celia Fitz-Walter
Sales and Ticketing Coordinator
Michael Ruston
Ticketing Services Officer
Jake Donehue
Ticketing Services Officer
Gaelle Lindrea
Director – Philanthropy
Lisa Harris
Philanthropy Officer
Phil Petch
Philanthropy Services Officer
Robert Miller
Director – Human Resources
Debbie Draper Chief Financial Officer
Sue Schiappadori
Accountant
Amy Herbohn
Finance Officer
Kylie Blucher
Simon Gallaher
Sophie Mitchell
Mick Power AM
EXECUTIVE STAFF
Chief Executive: John Kotzas
Director – Presenter Services: Ross Cunningham
Director – Marketing: Roxanne Hopkins
Director – Corporate Services: Kieron Roost
Director – Patron Services: Jackie Branch
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The Queensland Performing Arts Trust is a
statutory body of the State of Queensland and is
partially funded by the Queensland Government
The Honourable Annastacia Palaszczuk MP,
Premier and Minister for the Arts
Director-General, Department of Science,
Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts:
Sue Rickerby
Patrons are advised that the Performing
Arts Centre has EMERGENCY EVACUATION
PROCEDURES, a FIRE ALARM system and EXIT
passageways. In case of an alert, patrons should
remain calm, look for the closest EXIT sign in
GREEN, listen to and comply with directions given
by the inhouse trained attendants and move in
an orderly fashion to the open spaces outside
the Centre.
PROGRAM September 23
PARTNERS
Government partners
Community and education partners
Corporate partners
Media partners
Co-production partners
24
PROGRAM September