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SIR ANDREW DAVIS CONDUCTS
WAGNER AND STRAUSS
Wednesday 27 June at 8pm
Melbourne Town Hall
Friday 29 June at 8pm
Sydney Opera House Concert Hall
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Sir Andrew Davis conductor
Angela Denoke soprano
Wagner
Tannhäuser: Overture
Wagner
Die Walküre: ‘Du bist der Lenz’
Wagner
Tristan und Isolde: Prelude and
Liebestod
INTERVAL
Strauss
Der Rosenkavalier: Suite
Strauss
Salome: Final Scene
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welcome
It will not surprise you, who so
passionately support the Melbourne
Symphony Orchestra, that I express
my absolute delight at being back in
this beautiful city conducting this
magnificent orchestra.
And my special pleasure conducting
the MSO since being named Chief
Conductor Designate is magnified
hugely by the chance to work for the
first time with Angela Denoke.
We are very fortunate indeed to have
secured the services of Ms Denoke
to replace the indisposed Deborah
Voigt for this program. She is an
artist that I greatly admire and the
timing is perfect; Ms Denoke has just
completed a critically-acclaimed run
of performances in the title role in
Strauss’ Salome at Covent Garden and
the final scene from this opera will
end our program.
Tonight Angela Denoke will bring
to life some of the most fascinating
women in the works of Wagner and
Strauss. There could be no more
fitting repertoire for this fabulous
artist.
I know you will be thrilled by
this very special concert. In the
next few years I look forward to
conducting many more remarkable
performances with the Melbourne
Symphony Orchestra and artists of
the stature of Angela Denoke.
Best wishes,
Sir Andrew Davis
Chief Conductor Designate
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
It is with great pleasure and pride that
I welcome you to this historic concert.
It is historic because Angela
Denoke’s two performances with the
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra –
here in Melbourne tonight and at
the Sydney Opera House on Friday
– are the first ever appearances of
this superlative soprano here in
Australia. We’re especially grateful
to Ms Denoke for stepping in to this
demanding program at such short
notice, following Deborah Voigt’s
recent cancellation.
And secondly, it is an especially
important event because Sir Andrew
Davis, who in so many ways is already
a great friend to Melbourne and the
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra,
agreed just a few days ago to become
the MSO’s Chief Conductor from
next January.
I hope you will join me in
celebrating the work of these two
great international artists on this
important occasion.
My thanks to Sydney’s Shangri-La
Hotel for their generosity in making
possible our visit to the harbour city.
And thank you for being with us
tonight.
Harold Mitchell AC
Chairman
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
It gives me great delight to present
this outstanding program with the
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
under the baton of Sir Andrew Davis,
featuring one of the world’s great
dramatic sopranos, Angela Denoke,
who has graciously stepped in for
Deborah Voigt at short notice. We
wish Ms vb a speedy and full recovery,
and hope that Australian audiences
will have the chance to hear this
exceptional artist in the near future.
The Sydney Opera House is well
known as the home of the Sydney
Symphony, so it is with added
pleasure that I am able to welcome
our Melbourne compatriots into our
famous House this Friday night.
This concert will be the first chance
for many Sydney people to experience
the Orchestra conducted by its Chief
Conductor Designate, Sir Andrew
Davis. Clearly, the stars have aligned
to bring us this magnificent program
featuring some of the most glorious –
and demanding – vocal music in the
operatic repertoire. I trust you enjoy
this evening’s performance, and I look
forward to welcoming Angela Denoke,
Sir Andrew Davis and the wonderful
MSO to the Sydney Opera House.
Jonathan Bielski
Acting CEO
Sydney Opera House
© Lucas Dawson
about the artists
Sir Andrew Davis
conductor
Sir Andrew Davis is Chief Conductor
Designate of the Melbourne
Symphony Orchestra.
Sir Andrew recently extended his
contract as the Music Director and
Principal Conductor of Lyric Opera
of Chicago through to the 2020/2021
season, having been appointed in
2000. He is also Conductor Laureate
of both the Toronto Symphony and
BBC Symphony orchestras, and
was previously Music Director of
Glyndebourne Festival Opera.
A former organ scholar at King’s
College, Cambridge, he has
conducted all of the world’s major
orchestras as well as at leading opera
houses and festivals. His tenure
as chief conductor of the BBC
Symphony, which he led at the Proms
and on tour to Europe, the USA and
Asia, was the longest since that of the
Orchestra’s founder Sir Adrian Boult.
His repertoire is diverse, however he
is a keen proponent of works by Elgar,
Tippett, Britten, Boulez, Messiaen
and Janáček.
In addition to performances in
Toronto and Chicago, this season’s
operatic engagements have
included the Metropolitan Opera
(Don Giovanni), Santa Fe Opera
(Arabella), and the Canadian Opera
Company (Gianni Schicchi, A Florentine
Tragedy). Symphonic engagements
have included the Philharmonia
Orchestra, BBC Symphony, Royal
Scottish National Orchestra,
Rotterdam Philharmonic and the
opening of the Edinburgh Festival.
The most recent additions to
his award-winning discography
include Holst’s The Planets, Beni
Mora and Japanese Suite; York
Bowen’s Symphonies Nos 1 and 2
(BBC Philharmonic); and Delius’
Appalachia, The Song of the High Hills
and Violin and Cello Concertos
with Tasmin Little and Paul Watkins
(BBCSO).
He was made a Commander of the
British Empire in 1992, and a Knight
Bachelor in 1999. He is also a recipient
of the Royal Philharmonic Society/
Charles Heidsieck Music Award.
GRIEG
Concerto
Join the MSO’s Chief Conductor Designate,
Sir Andrew Davis, in the newly renovated
Hamer Hall, for this concert featuring one of
the world’s favourite piano concertos.
Thursday 30 August at 8pm
Friday 31 August at 8pm
Saturday 1 September at 8pm
Melbourne Town Hall
Tickets FROM
$60
BOOK NOW
at mso.com.au or
call 1300 723 038
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© Johan Persson
about the artists
Angela Denoke
soprano
German-born Angela Denoke studied
at the Hochschule für Musik und
Theater Hamburg before joining the
ensemble of the Theater Ulm and the
Stuttgart State Opera.
She is closely associated with the
Vienna State Opera, Paris Opera, and
the Berlin and Bavarian State Operas,
where her performances have included
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Arabella,
Salome, Die tote Stadt, Parsifal, Jenuºfa, Der
Rosenkavalier, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser,
The Queen of Spades, Katya Kabanova,
Wozzeck, Erwartung and Fidelio. She
has also performed at the Royal
Opera House, Metropolitan Opera,
Netherlands Opera, Semperoper
Dresden, Teatro Real Madrid, Gran
Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, and the
Théâtre du Châtelet.
Eve Lehár Gala from Dresden, Die tote
Stadt, Die Walküre, Katya Kabanova,
Cardillac, Fidelio, Wozzeck and
Beethoven’s Symphony No.9.
Her jazz and chanson program From
Babelsberg to Beverly Hills, devoted
to the era of Marlene Dietrich
and Zarah Leander, tours to the
Kurt Weill Festival in Dessau and
to the opera houses of Munich,
Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona, Oviedo,
Frankfurt, Paris and Milan. Her
Kurt Weill recital Two Lives to Live
premiered at the 2011 Salzburg
Festival and will be presented at the
Vienna State Opera in 2013.
She has received the Singer of
the Year award from Opernwelt
magazine (1999), Der Faust German
Theatre Award for her portrayal of
Salome (2007), and was appointed
Kammersängerin of the Vienna State
Opera in 2009.
She has performed at the Salzburg
Festival and with such orchestras as
the London Symphony and Berlin
Philharmonic, under conductors
including Harding, Gergiev and
Rattle. Her recordings include The
Makropulos Case from the Salzburg
Festival (2011), Salome, a New Year’s
CONCERT INFORMATION
This concert has a duration of approximately two
hours, including an interval of 20 minutes.
The performance on Wednesday 27 June is
performed in the presence of the Honourable
Alex Chernov AC QC, Governor of Victoria and
Mrs Elizabeth Chernov.
Wednesday evening’s performance will be broadcast
around Australia on ABC Classic FM (on analogue
and digital radio), and streamed on the network’s
website, at 8pm on Saturday 30 June.
Please turn off your mobile phone and all other
electronic devices before the performance
commences.
If you do not need your printed program after
the concert, we encourage you to return it to the
program stands located in the foyer.
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra programs can be
read on-line or downloaded up to a week before
each concert, from www.mso.com.au.
About the Music
Notes on the program by Gordon
Kalton Williams
lovedeaths
A Song of Love and Death – that’s how
Peter Conrad sums up opera in his
1987 book of that name. His title
reminds us that opera is a ritual
grounded in our most fundamental
truths. Certainly songs of love and
death are represented in tonight’s
program.
In the 19th century, German
Romantics aimed to heighten the
expression of emotion in the arts.
Wagner, the towering genius of 19th
century music (his bicentenary is next
year), intensified that expression to
unprecedented extremes. He chose
myths for subject matter; they went
deep. His operas (or music dramas, as
he preferred to call them) dealt with
life’s absolutes in the starkest terms.
Wagner’s achievements matched
his intentions. He changed not only
the course of music, but influenced
literature, theatre and perhaps, and
less happily, philosophy as well. The
next generation of composers could
easily have been dwarfed by him.
Wagner’s principal successors dealt
with his legacy in different ways.
Mahler wrote gargantuan symphonies
that burst the confines of the fourmovement works normally played in the
concert hall. Richard Strauss began by
writing symphonic poems that matched
the keen descriptiveness of dramatic
works, but his acute observation of
character and situation suited him
ultimately for Wagner’s field, opera.
Strauss’ subject matter ranged
more widely than Wagner’s and in
collaboration with his librettists,
principally Hofmannsthal, he wrote
symbolic rather than mythological
dramas. But the harmonic language
of both composers extended the
palette of classical tonality. The
accompanying orchestra in their
hands became a major player in the
drama. Their work required singers
of greater stamina and power. You
could say they provided some of our
culture’s greatest ceremonials of
death and love.
Richard Wagner
(1813–1883)
Tannhäuser (Dresden version,
1845): Overture
Tannhäuser dates from Wagner’s time
as Second Kapellmeister in Dresden
(1843–49). In his previous opera, The
Flying Dutchman, Wagner had already
established Redemption as one
of his lifelong themes. Tannhäuser
continues the idea of a woman, again
a soprano, sacrificing herself for the
man she loves.
Tannhäuser’s plot is a conflation
of several myths. Wagner based
his libretto on sources ranging
from Ludwig Tieck’s collection of
fairytales, Phantasus, to Heinrich
Heine’s essay Elementargeister. He
also derived another plotline from
E.T.A. Hoffmann’s story Der Kampf
der Sänger, about a song contest at
Wartburg Castle.
Love and death may be opera’s two
defining poles. Tannhäuser depicts
furthermore a tussle between
carnality and spiritual love. The
curtain rises on the minstrel
Tannhäuser in the Venusberg, the
legendary haunt of the goddess of
love. Sated with the Venusberg’s
delights, he wants to return to the
everyday world. Once there, he
rediscovers his former love, Elisabeth,
and tries to win her back in a song
contest. He is expected, however,
to seek repentance for his sins
and travels to Rome but is refused
forgiveness by the Pope. But all is
not lost. At the last, Elisabeth dies
and in dying intercedes for him.
News is brought of the Pope’s staff in
Rome bursting into leaf, signifying
Tannhäuser’s salvation.
In the 1840s, when he began
Tannhäuser, Wagner had not yet
conceived his revolutionary theory
of music drama. The version of
Tannhäuser premiered in Dresden
was still basically a traditional
‘number opera’ with discrete arias,
ensembles, and choruses. Its overture
was in a closed form and could stand
alone as a musical item. Franz Liszt
described this overture as ‘a poem
Richard Wagner as painted by
Caesar Willich (1862)
upon the same subject as the opera’.
In its broadly ternary structure it
summarised the opera’s philosophical
concerns.
Clarinets, trombones, and bassoons
intone the pilgrims’ chorus in a
broad triple time. As Wagner said
in a program note, ‘It approaches,
swells to a mighty outpouring and
finally passes into the distance.
– Twilight:...As night falls, magic
visions show themselves.’ The music
launches into the fast whirling
chromaticism of the Venusberg.
Tannhäuser’s ‘Hymn to Venus’ is
next heard, before the triumphant
return of the pilgrims’ hymn, solidly
indicative of virtue’s victory.
Wagner revised Tannhäuser for
Paris in 1861. By that time he had
composed the highly chromatic and
anguished Tristan und Isolde, and the
‘Paris’ version benefits from Wagner’s
advanced harmonic language. It is
as if he was being lured to ever more
sensual depictions of love.
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first
performed the Tannhäuser Overture on 14 May
1938 under conductor George Szell, and most
recently in September 2004 with Oleg Caetani.
about the music
Wagner
Die Walküre, Act I: ‘Du bist der
Lenz’ (You are the Spring)
In Dresden, even before Tannhäuser’s
premiere, Wagner had begun
collecting editions of the Nordic
myths which would form the basis for
his 15-hour, four-opera cycle, The Ring
of the Nibelung. The premiere of The
Ring at Bayreuth in 1876 was probably
Wagner’s proudest accomplishment.
It had taken him 26 years to write
(1848–1874).
The Ring adds ‘power’ to opera’s love
and death concerns. It begins with
Alberich the dwarf stealing gold
that sits at the bottom of the Rhine.
But there was no motivation for
Alberich’s theft in Wagner’s source
myths. Wagner hit on the idea of
Alberich stealing the gold because it
contains the promise of power, after
he has been rejected in love by the
Rhinemaidens. Death and destruction
are set in train when the ring forged
Du bist der Lenz, nach dem ich
verlangte
in frostigen Winters Frist.
Dich grüßte mein Herz mit heiligem
Grau’n,
als dein Blick zuerst mir erblühte.
Fremdes nur sah ich von je,
freudlos war mir das Nahe.
Als hätt’ ich nie es gekannt, war, was
immer mir kam.
Doch dich kannt’ ich deutlich und klar:
als mein Auge dich sah,
warst du mein Eigen;
was im Busen ich barg, was ich bin,
hell wie der Tag taucht’ es mir auf,
o wie tönender Schall schlug’s an
mein Ohr,
als in frostig öder Fremde
zuerst ich den Freund ersah.
from the gold is, in turn, stolen from
Alberich and he curses anyone who
becomes its subsequent owner.
By the time of Die Walküre, the
second opera in the cycle, the godking Wotan, who took the ring from
Alberich, has incurred the curse, and
realised that only someone untainted
by his actions can free the gods. He
has therefore produced humans.
In Act I we find Sieglinde enduring
a loveless marriage to Hunding. A
stranger, Siegmund, seeks shelter
from a storm in their hut. Siegmund
and Sieglinde sense a kindredness
but Hunding smells an enemy. After
Hunding has challenged Siegmund
to a duel and Sieglinde has revealed
to Siegmund a sword that has lain
waiting for the day he would arrive,
they declare their love. Years of
woe are lifted from their shoulders.
Siegmund sings of the departure of
winter and Sieglinde throws herself
into his arms (‘You are the Spring...’).
You are the spring I waited for
During the cold winter’s reign.
My heart welcomed you with holy dread,
When I first saw your look.
I only beheld strangeness coming from afar,
While here there was sorrow.
Whatever came was as if I’d never known it.
But I clearly and distinctly knew you:
When I saw you,
You were my own;
What I hid in my bosom, what I am,
It emerged like broad daylight,
Oh, like a loud sound against my ear,
When in a cold and lonely strange country
I first lay eyes on a friend.
Their love will not last though. In
this first generation of humans,
Siegmund and Sieglinde are brother
and sister. Wotan’s wife, Fricka,
guardian of marriage vows, orders
Wotan to let Siegmund die. Siegmund
and Sieglinde’s ‘happily ever after’ is
thwarted. But not before Wagner has
composed some of the most affecting
love music in opera. And not before
Sieglinde has been impregnated with
Siegfried who will try (in vain) to free
the gods of their curse in the final
operas of the cycle.
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first
performed ‘Du Bist der Lenz’ from Die Walküre
in October 1960 with conductor Henry Krips
and tenor Kenneth Neate. The MSO gave a
complete concert performance of the opera in
August 1981 with Sir Charles Mackerras, and
of Act I in September 2004 with Oleg Caetani,
soprano Larissa Shevchenko, Glenn Winslade
(Siegmund) and Bruce Martin (Hunding).
about the music
Wagner
Tristan und Isolde: Prelude and
Liebestod
WAGNER IN 1882
Die Walküre is often considered the
perfect embodiment of the operatic
theories Wagner espoused in his
book Oper und Drama (1851). In
1851 he had argued for a balanced
relationship between words and
music. 1865’s Tristan und Isolde,
however, can be listened to almost
purely as music. What had caused the
elevation of music’s role?
Wagner conceived an opera on the
Tristan myth in 1854, around the
time of the first complete musical
draft of Die Walküre. He interrupted
composition on Siegfried, the third
opera of his Ring cycle, to compose
the music for this work.
Why the interruption? Partly, he
wanted to give expression to a passion
he had conceived for Mathilde
Wesendonck, the wife of a Zurich
silk merchant. And Tristan could
indeed be considered opera’s ‘greatest
love story ever told’. But there were
philosophical considerations as well.
WAGNER IN 1868
Tristan und Isolde begins with Tristan
taking the sorceress Isolde back to
Cornwall to wed his uncle, King
Marke. But he and Isolde fall into
a world-defying love when Isolde’s
servant substitutes a love potion
for the poison Isolde intended for
Tristan. When they are caught,
Tristan flees, mortally wounded. He
dies as Isolde comes to him, and she
expires in expectation of joining him
beyond earthly life. This all takes
place with a minimum of action,
dramatic incident stripped down
basically to entrances and exits. Act II
is essentially one long love duet.
But Tristan und Isolde is not simple
in philosophical or psychological
terms. Another reason for Wagner’s
interruption from The Ring was
the influence on him of Arthur
Schopenhauer (1788–1860), whose
quasi-Buddhist philosophy he needed
to digest. Schopenhauer held that
music allowed the individual to
inhabit ‘will’ itself, rather than sit
in the world buffeted by the will’s
manifestations. Music was thus the
principal art form, a problematic
position for a composer who had
argued for an equal synthesis of all
the arts. In a sense, composing Tristan
was a method of solving this problem.
Not that Wagner completely retreated
from dramatic intention. Rather, he
had found that music, as ‘will’, gave
rise to action; action, not text, was
music’s new partner.
Following Schopenhauerian thought
on transcendence, Wagner gained
new insight into his continuing
concerns with Romantic ‘love and
death’. Isolde, in her ‘love-death’,
finally transcends the suffering of her
lover’s death and finds fulfilment in a
mythical realm.
In trying to convey all this, Wagner
almost exhausted Western harmony’s
unique ability to express longing.
The Prelude begins with four notes
of cello in a yearning arc which
culminates in the famous ‘Tristan’
chord, a tensely knotted harmony,
which unfurls to a merely less
dissonant chord. This is the pattern
of tension and not-quite release for
the next five hours of the opera (and
certainly the Prelude).
In concert, the Prelude is often
paired with the opera’s very end, the
Liebestod, Isolde’s final monologue.
This is less dissonant yet still constantly
modulating, and thus unsettled. Its
melody derives from Act II where
Tristan sang: ‘Thus might we die,
undivided…’ In Act II, the build-up
culminated in an ugly interrupted
cadence. Here finally there is complete
release as Isolde sings of tasting
Tristan’s respiration in ‘sweet perfume,
in the surging swell, in the ringing
sound of the world’s breath’ – a flood
of sensation suggesting transcendence
beyond surfeit.
‘Even if only one person pays for a
seat at Tristan, it must be performed
for him...’, said the composer of our
second half, Richard Strauss.
about the music
Mild und leise
wie er lächelt,
wie das Auge
hold er öffnet:
seht, ihr, Freunde,
säh’t ihr’s nicht?
Immer lichter
wie er leuchtet,
Stern-umstrahlet
hoch sie hebt
seht ihr’s nicht?
Wie das Herz ihm
mutig schwillt,
voll und hehr
im Busen ihm quilt;
wie den Lippen,
wonnig mild,
süsser Atem
sanft entweht:
Freunde, seht!
Fühlt und seht ihr’s nicht?
Höre ich nur
diese Wiesse,
die so wundervoll und leise,
Wonne klagend,
Alles sagend,
mild versöhnend
aus ihm tönend,
in mich dringet,
auf sich schwinget,
hold erhallend,
um mich klinget?
Heller schallend,
mich umwallend,
sind es Wellen
sanfter Lüfte?
Sind es Wolken
wonniger Düfte?
Wie sie schwellen,
mich umrauschen,
soll ich atmen,
soll ich lauschen?
soll ich schlürfen,
untertauchen,
süss in Düften
mich verhauchen?
in dem wogenden Schwall,
in dem tönenden Schall,
in des Welt-Atems wehendem All –
ertrinken –
versinken –
unbewusst –
höchste Lust!
Mild and gentle,
he is smiling,
softly opening
his eyes:
friends, behold him,
see you not?
Ever brighter,
ever lighter,
veiled in starlight
wafted high:
see you not?
How the courage
of his heart,
strong and noble,
fills his breast?
Fair and tender
from his lips
flows his breathing
in sweet bliss:
look, o friends,
Can’t you feel it? See you not?
Is it I alone
who hears them,
strains so gentle and so wondrous,
blissful yearning,
all confessing,
gently healing,
from his welling,
ringing out
to pierce my soul
with the magic
of these sounds?
Bright and brighter they surround me,
are they waves
of friendly breezes,
are they perfumes
gently surging?
Ever rising,
they embrace me,
shall I breathe them,
shall I listen?
Shall I drink them
and surrender,
in the fragrance
breathe my last?
In the surging swell,
in the harmonious sound,
in the floating breath
of the whole universe –
to drown –
and sink down –
lost to the world –
in supreme bliss!
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first
performed the Prelude and Liebestod from
Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde on 28 July 1938
with conductor Joseph Post and soprano Kirsten
Flagstad. The orchestra most recently performed
it in September 2004 with Oleg Caetani and
Larissa Shevchenko.
INTERVAL
the orchestra
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Sir Andrew Davis Chief Conductor DesignateTadaaki Otaka Principal Guest Conductor
Benjamin Northey Patricia Riordan Associate Conductor Chair
First Violins
Wilma Smith
Harold Mitchell AC
Concertmaster Chair
Roy Theaker
Associate
Concertmaster
Michael Kisin
Principal
Peter Edwards
Assistant Principal
Kirsty Bremner
MSO Friends Chair
Sarah Curro
Lerida Delbridge
Peter Fellin
Deborah Goodall
Lorraine Hook
Kirstin Kenny
Ji Won Kim
Eleanor Mancini
Anne Martonyi
Mark Mogilevski
Michelle Ruffolo
Kathryn Taylor
Alice Rickards*†
Second Violins
Matthew Tomkins
Principal
Robert Macindoe
Associate Principal
Monica Curro
Assistant Principal
Mary Allison
Isin Cakmakcioglu
Cong Gu
Andrew Hall
Rachel Homburg
Christine Johnson
Philip Lajta
David Shafir
Isy Wasserman
Philippa West
Patrick Wong
Roger Young
Lynette Rayner*
Rebecca Adler*
Zoe Black*
Susannah Ng*
Gabrielle Halloran
Cindy Watkin
Justin Williams
Caleb Wright
Ceridwen Davies*
Sophie Kesoglidis*
Simon Oswell*
Catherine Turnbull*
Cellos
David Berlin
Principal
Damien Eckersley
Benjamin Hanlon
Suzanne Lee
Stephen Newton
Esther Wright*
Flutes
Prudence Davis
Principal
Wendy Clarke
Associate Principal
Sarah Morse
Associate Principal
Nicholas Bochner
Assistant Principal
Miranda Brockman
Rohan de Korte
Sharon Draper
Joan Evans
Keith Johnson
Angela Sargeant
Michelle Wood
Rachel Atkinson*
Zoe Wallace*
Violas
Christopher Cartlidge
Double Basses
Principal
Steve Reeves
Fiona Sargeant
Principal
Associate Principal
Andrew Moon
Trevor Jones
Associate Principal
Assistant Principal
Sylvia Hosking
Katie Betts
Assistant Principal
Lauren Brigden
Katharine Brockman
Simon Collins
Sarah Beggs
Piccolo
Andrew Macleod
Principal
Oboes
Jeffrey Crellin
Principal
Vicki Philipson
Associate Principal
Ann Blackburn*
COR ANGLAIS
Michael Pisani
Principal
Bass Clarinet
Jon Craven
Principal
Trumpets
Geoffrey Payne
Principal
Tuba
Tim Buzbee
Principal
Bassoons
Andrew Barnes*
Guest Principal
Shane Hooton
Associate Principal
Timpani
Christine Turpin
Principal
Elise Millman
Associate Principal
Natasha Thomas
Adam Mikulicz*^
William Evans
Julie Payne
Tristan Rebien*
Trombones
Brett Kelly
Principal
CONTRABASSOON
Kenneth
Brock Imison
McClimont
Principal
Associate Principal
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Michael Bertoncello
Andrew Bain
Principal
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Eric Klay
Geoff Lierse
Principal
Associate Principal
Saul Lewis
Principal 3rd
Percussion
Robert Clarke
Principal
John Arcaro
Robert Cossom
Evan Pritchard*
Leah Scholes*
Harp
Julie Raines
Principal
Delyth Stafford*
Piano/CELESTE
Leigh Harrold*
Trinette
McClimont
Rachel Silver
Jenna Breen*^
Clarinets
David Thomas
Elisabeth Murdoch
Principal Clarinet
Chair
Philip Arkinstall
Associate Principal
Craig Hill
* Guest Musician
† Courtesy of BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
^ Courtesy of West Australian Symphony Orchestra
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Board
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Goldberg AO QC
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Coordinator
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or philanthropy@mso.com.au.
MSO Foundation
The MSO Foundation will permanently strengthen the MSO for an inspiring future in our community.
Orchestra Chair Leadership Campaign (In recognition of outstanding support)
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Anonymous (15)
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MSO Projects
Many projects need specific support. We sincerely thank the following for their vital support for the MSO’s Education and
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To find out more about these and other special projects, such as the MSO Instrument Fund, please visit www.mso.com.au.
about the music
Richard Strauss
(1864–1949)
Der Rosenkavalier, Op.59: Suite
STRAUSS AND HIS LIBRETTIST HUGO VON
HOFMANNSTAHL IN 1912
The language of Tristan und Isolde
foreshadowed the ultra-chromatic
music of the early 20th century in
pieces such as Richard Strauss’ Salome
and the music of Arnold Schoenberg,
who was to take chromaticism so far as
ultimately to dispense with traditional
tonality. Strauss might have become
a revolutionary like Schoenberg,
but after the harmonic excesses of
Salome and Elektra, he wanted to
write something ‘Mozartian’. 1911’s
Der Rosenkavalier provides relief from
post-Wagnerian heaviness. We are still
talking about love; but consciousness
of mortality, rather than death itself,
explains the opera’s bitter-sweet mood.
Der Rosenkavalier was the second
of Strauss’ operas written in
collaboration with librettist, Hugo von
Hofmannsthal.
The title (The Knight of the Rose) derives
from a scene in the second act whereby
a knighted emissary presents a silver
rose to a woman on behalf of her
suitor. Such a custom never existed,
but Hofmannsthal specialised in such
delightful mixtures of fact and fantasy.
Set in Vienna in 1740, Der
Rosenkavalier tells how the 17-year-old
Octavian outwits the oafish Baron
Ochs in his quest for the hand of
Sophie, daughter of the nouveauriche Herr von Faninal. But that is
not all: it is a story of the magic of
love at first sight; of nostalgia, selfsacrifice and the passing of time.
Octavian, the ‘Knight’, first lays eyes
on Sophie during the presentation
of the Rose. Strauss’ orchestra
wonderfully expresses the slowmotion intoxication of the moment.
Octavian must first be given up by
his older lover, the Feldmarschallin,
Marie-Thérèse, who has known
all along that the clock is ticking
on their relationship; that one day
Octavian will fall for someone his
A rare opportunity to see Deborah Voigt
perform at the New York Metropolitan Opera
Encore season:
Wagner’s Complete R I NG CYCLE
Plus other highlights from the
recent record-breaking seasons:
• Le Comte Ory
• Lucia di Lammermoor
• Don Giovanni
June 2012 - September 2012
CINEMA NOVA
380 Lygon Street, Carlton
www.cinemanova.com.au
about the music
own age. Her proud surrender is the
background for the glorious Trio,
which is the climax of the opera.
Strauss’ score, though sumptuous in
a very un-18th century sort of way,
retains a Mozartian intention in the
level of musical beauty throughout.
The ‘Rosenkavalier waltzes’ are of
such a quality that, by this opera
alone, Richard Strauss could almost
challenge his unrelated namesake for
the title of ‘Waltz King’.
A silent film version of Der Rosenkavalier
was made in the 1920s, Strauss
agreeing to a reworking of his score
as accompaniment. Strauss also made
his own arrangements of two waltz
sequences in 1934 and 1944. Finally, in
1945, he sanctioned the making of this
suite version.
We may miss the voices in this
orchestral version, especially the
ravishing intertwinings of sopranos in
the final Trio, but we still get a sense
of the immense bitter-sweet wisdom of
the plot and a glimpse of the opera’s
charming portrayal of young love.
A Daimler Brand
It presents without pause some of the
best-known passages of the opera,
opening, as does the opera, with
music played before the curtain
rises, depicting the bedroom antics
of Octavian and the Marschallin.
Notorious are the swirling strings and
the virile whooping of the horns. This
segues into the ‘Presentation of the
Rose’ music, and eventually to one of
the loveliest touches in the score: the
sugar ice harmonies played by flutes,
harp, celeste and solo violins. A short
transition brings us to Baron Ochs’
all-too-creamy waltz, and then to the
Trio music and final folk-like Duet
from the end of the opera.
WE BELIEVE IN
THE POWER OF
TOGETHER.
BY COMBINING
OUR PASSION
AND SKILLS
WITH THAT OF
OUR CLIENTS,
LOTTE LEHMANN AS THE MARsCHALLIN,
AT THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE, COVENT
GARDEN (1938)
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s
first performance of the Suite from Der
Rosenkavalier took place at a Sidney Myer Free
Concert on 14 February 1959 with conductor
Alfred Wallenstein. The Orchestra most
recently performed it in September 2010 under
Mark Wigglesworth.
We are the sum of
many perfect parts.
When we come together
in perfect harmony,
the results will move you
in a way you’ve never
been moved before.
Our passion for excellence
gives us the impetus
to innovate.
Our versatility allows
us to surprise.
We proudly invite you
to take a seat
and enjoy what we do best.
We are the sum of
many perfect parts.
When we come together
in perfect harmony,
the results will move you
in a way you’ve never
been moved before.
Our passion for excellence
gives us the impetus
to innovate.
Our versatility allows
us to surprise.
We proudly invite you
to take a seat
and enjoy what we do best.
WE CAN ACHIEVE
AMAZING THINGS.
KING & WOOD MALLESONS
IS DELIGHTED TO BE AN ONGOING
SUPPORTER OF THE
MELBOURNE
SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA.
www.kwm.com
Like attracts like. Mercedes-Benz Australia/Pacific, official automotive
partner to the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
www.mercedes-benz.com.au
about the music
R. Strauss
Salome: Final Scene
At the time of its first performance
in 1905, Salome was considered the
ultimate extension of Wagner’s
methods. Wagner had originally
sought a reform of opera in the
marriage of music and words; he
wrote his own librettos. For Salome
Strauss used an actual play, Oscar
Wilde’s French-language drama,
Salomé, of 1891. But Strauss faced the
same problem as Wagner with music’s
primacy. ‘[Salome],’ he concluded,
‘is the symphony in the medium of
drama...’ But nothing in Wagner, to
borrow Jennifer Hambrick’s words, was
‘any match for Salome’s psychologically
charged libretto and surprisingly
dissonant score’.
Strauss had seen a production of
Wilde’s play in Berlin in 1902, and a
poet Anton Lindner suggested that it
would make a good libretto. Strauss
tried out the play’s opening lines (in
German translation): ‘Wie schön ist
die Prinzessin Salome heute Nacht’
(How beautiful is the Princess Salome
this night) and realised that he
could create a libretto essentially by
trimming the text.
This was his third opera. Strauss
had been stretching form in his
symphonic poems, even to the extent
of trying to render a philosophy in
music (Thus Spake Zarathustra); he
now took Wagner’s chromaticism
and stretched it further in the quest
to render the sickness of Salome’s
love. Even Wagnerians had difficulty
swallowing the subject matter.
Siegfried Wagner said his father was
‘already turning in his grave’.
The plot is Wilde’s variation of a Bible
story: Salome has longed to kiss the
lips of the prophet Jokanaan (John
the Baptist); he has repulsed her. King
Herod, who ogles Salome despite her
being his step-daughter, says he’ll give
her anything she wants if only she’ll
reveal herself to him in a dance of the
seven veils. She does so, and demands
the head of Jokanaan as reward.
The final scene, in which Salome
finally kisses Jokanaan’s lips, is a tour
de force. It unfolds in several long
paragraphs, each building to a larger
and larger climax as the dramatic
soprano brings the opera to its
repellent, if emotional, conclusion.
Having feared that the executioner
would resist killing the prophet,
Salome exults as Jokanaan’s head
is presented to her on its silver
platter. There is a mighty roar in the
orchestra and a horrific revision of
the motif which preceded the opera’s
opening reflections on Salome’s
beauty. Over the top of this, Salome
gloats: ‘You would not let me kiss your
mouth, Jokanaan.’ The music settles
down and Salome praises the closed
eyes that would not look on her,
the silent tongue that spat venom...
She compares Jokanaan’s voice to
incense... The blending of sensations
is Tristanesque. Finally she concludes:
‘The mystery of love is greater than
the mystery of death.’
In the opera Herod now interjects.
‘She is a monster.’ We enter an evil
place. ‘Ah! I have kissed your mouth
Jokanaan,’ sings Salome to a chilling
accompaniment. And then, as she
exults, Strauss builds his music to its
most radiant, lyrical and discordant
height. A beam of moonlight falls on
Salome. Herod sees her kissing the
head. He orders that she be killed. His
men crush her under their shields.
about the music
This last scene has been described
by musicologist Michael Kennedy as
a ‘perverted Liebestod’, highlighting
a kinship between the works on this
program. But we’ve come a long way
from Elisabeth, Sieglinde and Isolde,
heroines who play redeeming roles
in their dramas; Salome has few
redeeming features as she upbraids
Jokanaan’s trunkless head for not
succumbing to her beauty.
In opera, sometimes love, sometimes
death wins, sometimes they both win
in the same crushing conjunction. In
the case of some of tonight’s extracts,
either may be a soprano character’s
fate, sometimes both.
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has
performed the Final Scene from Strauss’ Salome
on only one previous occasion: 16 October 1944
with conductor Bernard Heinze and soprano
Marjorie Lawrence.
Oscar Wilde
SALOME BY AUBREY BEARDSLEY
Gordon Kalton Williams © 2012
A GREAT ORCHESTRA NEEDS GREAT INSTRUMENTS
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Instrument Fund ensures the artists of
the MSO have instruments equal to their superb talent.
2012 is a special year for the MSO as instrumentalists, choristers and
audiences return to the refurbished Hamer Hall, and its enticing new world
of acoustic splendour.
Your superb woodwind section has identified three extraordinary
instruments to assist them to in their quest for ever improving standards:
“Music can transform the human
spirit. This is an art to which I
have devoted my life, and I hope
you will help this special appeal
for our woodwind section, in
whatever way you can.”
Prudence Davis, MSO Principal Flute
OBOE D’AMORE – The oboe of love! This serene member of the doublereed family has been a cherished part of the orchestral sound-world from the
18th century. The current MSO instrument is beyond repair and desperately
needs replacing.
CONTRABASS CLARINET – Despite its increasing use in the orchestral
repertoire since the mid-20th century there are very few of these instruments
in Australia. The MSO does not currently own a contrabass clarinet and,
given its increase in usage, it is essential that we purchase one at this time.
WOODEN FLUTES – To recreate the authentic sounds of the flute in
the music of such composers as Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms, the
purchase of two wooden flutes will greatly enhance the sound of the MSO for
these performances.
CAN YOU HELP?
We welcome all donations, but a donation of $100 or more will help us
solve these problems in a timely manner. Donations over $2 are fully taxdeductible.
Donate online at mso.com.au (click on Belong then Donate), or call
03 9626 1107, or post your donation to MSO Instrument Appeal, Melbourne
Symphony Orchestra GPO Box 9994 Melbourne VIC 3001.
© James Penlidis
about the music
SALOME WITH THE HEAD OF JOHN THE BAPTIST BY
CARAVAGGIO (c. 1607)
SALOME TELLS HEROD THE PRICE OF HER DANCE, FROM THE
OPERA’S FIRST PRODUCTION IN DRESDEN (1905)
SALOME
Ah!
Du wolltest mich nicht deinen Mund
küssen lassen, Jochanaan!
Wohl, ich werde ihn jetzt küssen!
Ich will mit meinen Zähnen
hineinbeissen,
wie man in eine reife Frucht
beissen mag.
Ja, ich will ihn jetzt küssen
deinen Mund, Jochanaan.
Ich hab’ es gesagt.
Hab’ ich’s nicht gesagt?
Ah! ah! Ich will ihn jetzt küssen.
Aber warum siehst du mich nicht an,
Jochanaan?
Deine Augen,
die so schrecklich waren,
so voller Wut und Verachtung,
sind jetzt geschlossen.
Warum sind sie geschlossen?
Ah!
You did not want me to kiss
your mouth, Jochanaan!
Well, I will kiss it now!
I want to bite into it
with my teeth,
like someone bites
into a ripe fruit.
Yes, I want to kiss it now,
your mouth, Jochanaan.
I told you.
Didn’t I tell you?
Ah! Ah! I want to kiss it now.
But why do you not look at me,
Jochanaan?
Your eyes
that were so terrible,
so full of anger and contempt,
are closed now.
Why are they closed?
about the music
Öffne doch die Augen!
So hebe deine Lider, Jochanaan!
Warum siehst du mich nicht an?
Hast du Angst vor mir, Jochanaan,
dass du mich nicht ansehen willst?
Und deine Zunge,
sie spricht kein Wort, Jochanaan,
diese Scharlachnatter,
die ihren Geifer gegen mich spie.
Es ist seltsam, nicht?
Wie kommt es, dass diese rote Natter
sich nicht mehr rührt?
Du sprachst böse Worte gegen mich,
gegen mich, Salome,
die Tochter der Herodias,
Prinzessin von Judäa.
Nun wohl!
Ich lebe noch, aber du bist tot,
und dein Kopf, dein Kopf gehört mir!
Ich kann mit ihm tun, was ich will.
Ich kann ihn den Hunden vorwerfen
und den Vögeln der Luft.
Was die Hunde übrig lassen,
sollen die Vögel der Luft verzehren.
Ah! Jochanaan, Jochanaan,
du warst schön.
Dein Leib war eine Elfenbeinsäule
auf silbernen Füssen.
Er war ein Garten voller Tauben
in der Silberlilien Glanz.
Nichts in der Welt
war so weiss wie dein Leib.
Nichts in der Welt
war so schwarz wie dein Haar.
In der ganzen Welt
war nichts so rot wie dein Mund.
Deine Stimme
war ein Weirauchgefäss,
Just open your eyes!
Lift your lids, Jochanaan!
Why do you not look at me?
Are you afraid of me, Jochanaan,
that you do not want to look at me?
And your tongue,
it does not say a word, Jochanaan,
that scarlet adder,
that spat its venom at me.
It is strange, is it not?
How come this red adder
does not move anymore?
You spoke harsh words against me,
against me, Salome,
daughter of Herodias,
Princess of Judea.
Well then!
I am still alive, but you are dead,
and your head, your head is mine!
I can do as I please with it.
I can throw it to the dogs
and the birds in the sky.
What the dogs don’t want,
the birds in the sky can have.
Ah! Jochanaan, Jochanaan,
you were handsome.
Your body was an ivory column
on silver feet.
It was a garden full of doves
shining with silver lilies.
Nothing in this world
was as white as your body.
Nothing in this world
was as black as your hair.
Nothing in this world
was as red as your mouth.
Your voice
was a frankincense dish
Beethoven’s
Fifth and
Pines of Rome
A concert full of musical treasures – from Beethoven’s mighty
Fifth Symphony to Respighi’s spectacular Pines of Rome.
Friday 13 July at 8pm
Robert Blackwood Hall
Monash University, Clayton
Saturday 14 July at 2pm
Monday 16 July at 6:30pm
Melbourne Town Hall
BOOK NOW
at mso.com.au or
call 1300 723 038
Tickets FROM
$45
A Spectacular
Return
TO ARTS CENTRE MELBOURNE,
HAMER HALL
The Melbourne Symphony
Orchestra celebrates its return to
the beautifully refurbished Arts
Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall in
this three-program opening event,
conducted by Markus Stenz.
Act 1: Mahler’s Third
Thursday 9 and
Friday 10 August at 8pm
Act 2: Beethoven and Wagner
Thursday 16 and
Saturday 18 August at 8pm
Act 3: Mystery Program
Wednesday 22 August at 8pm
PREMIUM
TICKETS
AVAILABLE
BOOK NOW
at mso.com.au or
call 1300 723 038
about the artists
und wenn ich ansah,
hörte ich geheimnisvolle Musik.
Ah! Warum hast du mich nicht angesehn,
Jochanaan? Du legtest über deine Augen die Binde eines,
der seinen Gott schauen wollte.Wohl!
Du hast deinen Gott gesehn, Jochanaan,
aber mich, mich, hast du nie gesehn.
Hättest du mich gesehn, du hättest mich geliebt!
Ich dürste nach deiner Schönheit.
Ich hungre nach deinem Leib.
Nicht Wein noch Äpfel können mein Verlangen stillen.
Was soll ich jetzt tun, Jochanaan?
Nicht die Fluten, noch die grossen Wasser
können dieses brünstige Begehren löschen.
Oh! Warum sahst du mich nicht an?
Hättest du mich angesehn,
du hättest mich geliebt.
Ich weiss es wohl, du hättest mich geliebt.
Und das Geheimnis der Liebe ist grösser
als das Geheimnis des Todes.
and when I listened,
I heard mysterious music.
Ah! Why did you not look at me,
Jochanaan? You covered your eyes with a cloth like someone
who wanted to see his God. Well!
You have seen your God, Jochanaan,
but me, me, you have never seen me.
Had you seen me, you would have loved me!
I yearn for your beauty.
I hunger for your body.
Neither wine nor apples can quell my desire.
What shall I do now, Jochanaan?
Neither floods, nor the big seas
can quench this fervent longing.
Oh! Why did you not look at me?
Had you looked at me,
you would have loved me.
I know it well, you would have loved me.
And the mystery of love is greater
than the mystery of death.
Ah! Ich habe deinen Mund geküsst,
Jochanaan. Ah! Ich habe ihn geküsst, deinen Mund,
es war ein bitterer Geschmack auf deinen Lippen.
Hat es nach Blut geschmeckt?
Nein? Doch es schmeckte vielleicht nach Liebe.
Sie sagen, dass die Liebe bitter schmecke.
Allein was tut’s? Was tut’s?
Ich habe deinen Mund geküsst, Jochanaan.
Ich habe ihn geküsst, deinen Mund.
Ah! I kissed your mouth
Jochanaan. Ah! I kissed it, your mouth,
there was a bitter taste on your lips.
Was it the taste of blood?
No? But maybe it tasted of love.
One says that love has a bitter taste.
But what if? What if?
I kissed your mouth, Jochanaan.
I kissed it, your mouth.
Text: Oscar Wilde, translated Hedwig Lachmann, edited Richard Strauss. English translation © Symphony Services International
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