Mendelssohn Booklet 2

476 3625
Mendelssohn
Symphony No. 2 Lobgesang
Sara Macliver • Elena Xanthoudakis • Jaewoo Kim
TSO Chorus • Sydney Philharmonia Chamber Singers
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
Sebastian Lang-Lessing
Mendelssohn
From the conductor
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FELIX MENDELSSOHN 1809-1847
Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 52 Lobgesang
I.
Sinfonia
Maestoso con moto – Allegro – Maestoso con moto come primo
Allegretto un poco agitato
Adagio religioso
II. Allegro moderato maestoso: ‘Alles, was Odem hat, lobe den Herrn!’
Allegro di molto: ‘Lobt den Herrn mit Saitenspiel’
Molto più moderato ma con fuoco: ‘Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele’
III. Recitative: ‘Saget es, die ihr erlöst seid durch den Herrn’
Allegro moderato: ‘Er zählet unsre Tränen’
IV. Chorus (A tempo moderato): ‘Sagt es, die ihr erlöset seid’
V. Andante: ‘Ich harrete des Herrn’
VI. Allegro un poco agitato: ‘Stricke des Todes hatten uns umfangen’
VII. Allegro maestoso e molto vivace: ‘Die Nacht ist vergangen’
VIII. Chorale (Andante con moto): ‘Nun danket alle Gott’
Un poco più animato: ‘Lob, Ehr’ und Preis sei Gott’
IX. Andante sostenuto assai: ‘Drum sing’ ich mit meinem Liede ewig dein Lob’
X. Chorus (Allegro non troppo): ‘Ihr Völker, bringet her dem Herrn Ehre und Macht’
Più vivace: ‘Alles danke dem Herrn!’
Maestoso come primo: ‘Alles, was Odem hat, lobe den Herrn!’
Total Playing Time
12’30
5’22
7’23
4’51
2’18
0’55
1’59
2’05
5’38
4’18
4’43
4’57
4’35
I see the Second Symphony much more as an oratorio than as a symphony in the traditional sense.
Certainly the first three movements relate to traditional symphonic forms and formal developments,
but in the second part, with the entrance of the choir, the proportions point towards the oratorio
genre. The conductor’s task is to meld these multiple aspects into one whole. The scherzo, which
swings back and forth between a melancholy dance and the chorales rising in the distance like a
procession, is of unearthly beauty; at the same time, it is the hinge by means of which the interpreter
can join the sacred with the secular.
When we come to the duet with the two sopranos and chorus, we are already transported to the
heights, far from earth. The firm inner faith expressed here in such humility demands of us a
corresponding sincerity, without pathos or sentimentality, but with, to use Beethoven’s words,
‘innermost feeling’. The driving out of the darkness is a dramatic high point, announced by a ‘voice
from above’, and we see how the light illumines us with the full power of its radiance.
Moses Mendelssohn was a great figure among the thinkers of the Enlightenment. His grandson Felix
here follows in his footsteps as he steps onto a different musical plane.
Sebastian Lang-Lessing
Chief Conductor and Artistic Director
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
5’23
67’03
Sara Macliver soprano I • Elena Xanthoudakis soprano II • Jaewoo Kim tenor
TSO Chorus (Chorusmaster: June Tyzack)
Sydney Philharmonia Chamber Singers (Chorusmaster: Brett Weymark)
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra • Sebastian Lang-Lessing conductor
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Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 52
Lobgesang is today best-known in English as
‘Hymn of Praise’ even though Mendelssohn
preferred the translation ‘Song of Praise’,
categorically saying that it was certainly not
translatable as ‘hymn’. The fact that
Mendelssohn was so concerned with these
details demonstrates the generic slipperiness
of the work itself. Three days after the first
performance, in a letter to his mother,
Mendelssohn called it ‘Lobgesang, eine
Symphonie für Chor und Orchester’ but later
he began to have misgivings and thought of
‘sending this piece into the world as a
Symphony-Cantata.’ Combining orchestral and
choral forces in much the same manner as
Beethoven’s Ninth, the work does indeed merge
the genres of symphony and cantata. Out of
all Mendelssohn’s orchestral works, and indeed
all 19th-century symphonies, Lobgesang was
most heavily criticised at the time for its close
allegiance to what was perceived as the
Beethovenian model. Nevertheless, even though
Mendelssohn himself did not think that ‘the
work will lend itself well to performance’, he
was still ‘quite fond of it.’
festivities. ‘I am seizing this occasion to write
something new,’ Mendelssohn wrote, and at
some stage had planned an oratorio on the
subject of St John, whose feast-day coincided
with the three-day Leipzig event. In the end, for
the cantata portion of the work Mendelssohn
assembled various selections from the Bible
which emphasised praise of God and the
triumph of light over darkness.
Gutenberg was widely identified by Germans of
the time as a figure of the Reformation, and the
printing press understood as a powerful tool vital
in disseminating Protestant thinking. Indeed, as
Mark Evan Bonds has pointed out, from the
mid-16th century Gutenberg ‘was consistently
portrayed as both a proto-Protestant and protonationalist.’ This historical perspective explains
the Biblical text as well as the presence of
Protestant chorales: there are two settings of
‘Nun danket alle Gott’ in the finale, and choralelike melodies and fleeting references to ‘Ein
feste Burg’ abound. The entrance of the chorus
with ‘Die Nacht ist vergangen, der Tag aber
herbeigekommen’ can thus be read as the
triumph of the Protestant Reformation itself. For
the first edition of the full score, Mendelssohn
also chose a quotation of Luther as an epithet:
‘Rather I wished to see all the arts, especially
music, serving Him who gave and created them.’
Lobgesang was informally commissioned by the
town council of Leipzig in 1840 to commemorate
the 400th anniversary of Gutenberg’s invention
of printing. Leipzig was at that time an important
centre for the German publishing industry and
so grand plans were laid for large-scale
Audience reactions to the first performances
were overwhelming and throughout the
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mélange of quotations from earlier movements
and placing the sung portion in opposition to the
instrumental movements. Mendelssohn seems
to have thought differently with his Lobgesang,
writing to a friend: ‘You understand, of course,
that first the instruments offer praise in their
way, and then the chorus and the individual
voices.’ Voices and instruments participate
equally in the song of praise.
composer’s lifetime the work was a great
favourite. At a performance in Düsseldorf in
1842, the audience interrupted the entrance of
the trombones in the chorus ‘Alles was Odem
hat’ by bursting into sustained applause and
Mendelssohn had to start the movement afresh.
Most critics, however, have read Lobgesang as a
colossal failure. Nineteenth-century
commentators, such as Adolf Bernhard Marx,
Richard Wagner and August Wilhelm Ambros,
condemned the work for its lack of organic unity
and haphazard imitation of Beethoven’s formal
design. For George Bernard Shaw, ‘the
symphony would have been weak under any
circumstances, but coming as it did after
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, it was
inexcusable.’ In 1974, Gerald Abraham rather
cruelly described it ‘as the most dismal attempt
to follow the lead of Beethoven’s Ninth
Symphony ever conceived by human mediocrity’.
Mark Evan Bonds has so far offered the most
compelling critique of the Lobgesang, arguing
from the historical standpoint that Mendelssohn
was in fact pursuing two parallel strategies in
the work. First, he appropriated generic qualities
of the Ninth but infused them with ‘a much
broader network of allusions to other icons of
Germany’s cultural past’ – Gutenberg and Luther,
but also composers like Handel (the opening,
with its ostinato figures and extensive
crescendo, effectively mimics the opening of
Zadok the Priest), Schubert (the confident bass
entry and antiphonal response from the
orchestra at the beginning parallels the opening
of Schubert’s ‘Great’ C major Symphony) and
Haydn, whose oratorio The Creation describes a
similar transformation from darkness to light.
Second, it appears he wanted to ‘correct’ what
he and others perceived as formal defects of the
Ninth with his own attempt at the hybrid genre.
For many people, even Schumann, who thought
it ‘the most exquisite, freshest, charming and
ingenious of all Mendelssohn’s works’, it was
the perceived incompatibility of the voices and
instruments that constituted the work’s greatest
fault. Mendelssohn, however, seems to
emphasise the parity of the two forces, rather
than calling attention to their differences as
Beethoven does with the first sung words of the
Ninth, ‘O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!’ (Friends,
not these tones!), decisively rejecting the
Mendelssohn, like many of his contemporaries,
was openly puzzled by Beethoven’s finale,
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admitting to Schumann that he ‘did not
understand’ the last movement (Schumann
agreed, but only in the privacy of his diary).
Writing to a historian in 1837, Mendelssohn
wrote: ‘I should speak to you about the Great
Ninth Symphony with Chorus? It is difficult to
speak about music in general. Above all, you
would need to hear it. The instrumental
movements belong to the greatest of all that I
know in the world of art. From the point at
which the voices enter, I, too, do not understand
the work; that is, I find only isolated elements to
be perfect, and when this is the case with such
a Master, then the fault probably lies with us.
Or in the performance.’
In the Lobgesang the voices are more
thoroughly integrated into a multi-movement
work. The opening instrumental movements
function as a complementary overture that is
bound to the others by motif and deliberate
design, rather than set apart, as in Beethoven’s
case. Furthermore, Mendelssohn cast the voices
in a more comfortable tessitura than the
‘Master’, whose strenuous choral writing has
long attracted criticism. With Lobgesang,
Mendelssohn came to terms with the Ninth
‘by relativising it,’ as Bonds concludes, ‘by
emphasising its place as only one of the many
monuments within a cultural tradition stretching
over several centuries.’
Erin Helyard
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Chorus
4 Alles, was Odem hat, lobe den Herrn.
Halleluja!
Lobt den Herrn mit Saitenspiel,
lobt ihn mit eurem Liede!
Und alles Fleisch lobe seinen heiligen Namen.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Hallelujah!
Praise the Lord with the sound of strings,
praise him with your song.
And let all flesh praise his holy name!
Soprano I and Women’s Chorus
5 Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele,
und was in mir ist, seinen heiligen Namen!
Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele,
und vergiß es nicht, was er dir Gutes getan!
Praise the Lord, my soul,
and let all that is in me praise his holy name!
Praise the Lord, my soul,
and do not forget the good he has done for you.
Tenor
6 Saget es, die ihr erlöst seid durch den Herrn,
die er aus der Not errettet hat,
aus schwerer Trübsal, aus Schmach und Banden,
die ihr gefangen im Dunkel waret,
alle, die er erlöst hat aus der Not.
Saget es! Danket ihm und rühmet seine Güte!
Tell it out, you who have been saved by the Lord,
you whom he has rescued from need,
from heavy affliction, from shame and bondage,
you who were imprisoned in darkness,
all whom he has delivered from their need.
Tell it out! Thank him and praise his goodness!
7 Er zählet unsre Tränen in der Zeit der Not,
er tröstet die Betrübten mit seinem Wort.
Saget es! Danket ihm und rühmet seine Güte!
He counts our tears in our time of need,
he comforts the afflicted with his word.
Tell it out! Thank him and praise his goodness!
Chorus
8 Sagt es, die ihr erlöset seid von dem Herrn
aus aller Trübsal!
Er zählet unsre Tränen in der Zeit der Not.
Tell it out, you who have been saved by the Lord
from all affliction!
He counts our tears in our time of need.
Sopranos I/II and Chorus
9 Ich harrete des Herrn,
und er neigte sich zu mir
und hörte mein Flehn.
I waited for the Lord,
and he leaned down to me
and heard my prayer.
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Blessed are they who put their hope
in the Lord!
Blessed are they who put their hope in him!
Wohl dem, der seine Hoffnung setzt auf
dem Herrn!
Wohl dem, der seine Hoffnung setzt auf ihn!
Tenor
0 Stricke des Todes hatten uns umfangen,
und Angst der Hölle hatte uns getroffen,
wir wandelten in Finsternis.
Er aber spricht:
Wache auf! der du schläfst,
stehe auf von den Toten,
ich will dich erleuchten.
The bonds of death were tight around us,
the fear of hell was upon us,
we were wandering in darkness.
But he said:
You who are sleeping, awake!
Rise up from the dead,
I will give you light.
Wir riefen in der Finsternis:
Hüter, ist die Nacht bald hin?
Der Hüter aber sprach:
Wenn der Morgen schon kommt,
so wird es doch Nacht sein;
wenn ihr schon fraget,
so werdet ihr doch wieder kommen,
und wieder fragen:
Hüter, ist die Nacht bald hin?
We called out in the darkness:
Watchman, is the night nearly over?
But the watchman said:
Morning is coming,
but night will come again.
You ask now,
but you will come back
and ask again:
Watchman, is the night nearly over?
Soprano I
Die Nacht ist vergangen!
The night is gone!
Chorus
! Die Nacht ist vergangen,
der Tag aber herbei gekommen.
So laßt uns ablegen die Werke der Finsternis
und anlegen die Waffen des Lichts,
und ergreifen die Waffen des Lichts.
Die Nacht ist vergangen,
der Tag ist gekommen.
The night is gone,
and the day has come.
So let us put aside the works of darkness
and put on the armour of light,
and take up the weapons of light.
The night is gone,
the day has come.
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Chorus
@ Nun danket alle Gott
mit Herzen, Mund und Händen,
der sich in aller Not
will gnädig zu uns wenden,
der so viel Gutes tut;
von Kindesbeinen an
uns hielt in seiner Hut,
und allen wohlgetan.
Now give thanks to God, all you people,
with hearts and mouths and hands;
he who graciously turns to us
in our every need,
he who does so many good things.
From our earliest childhood
he has held us safe,
and done all things for our good.
Praise, honour and blessing be to God,
the Father, the Son
and the Holy Ghost
in the highest throne of heaven.
Praise to the God who is three in one,
who divided the night and the darkness
from the light and the dawn:
it is to him that our song should give thanks.
Lob, Ehr und Preis sei Gott,
dem Vater und dem Sohne
und seinem heilgen Geist
im höchsten Himmelsthrone.
Lob dem dreiein’gen Gott,
der Nacht und Dunkel schied
von Licht und Morgenrot,
ihm danket unser Lied.
Tenor and Soprano I
£ Drum sing ich mit meinem Liede
ewig dein Lob, du treuer Gott!
und danke dir für alles Gute,
das du an mir getan.
Und wandl’ ich in Nacht und tiefem Dunkel,
und die Feinde umher stellen mir nach,
so rufe ich an den Namen des Herrn,
und er errettet mich nach seiner Güte.
Therefore shall I always raise my song
in your praise, faithful God!
and thank you for all the good things
that you have done for me.
And when I wander in the night in deep darkness,
and enemies are all around me, pursuing me,
then I shall call upon the name of the Lord,
and he in his goodness will save me.
Chorus
$ Ihr Völker! bringet her dem Herrn
Ehre und Macht!
Ihr Könige! bringet her dem Herrn
Ehre und Macht!
You peoples! offer to the Lord
glory and power!
You kings! offer to the Lord
glory and power!
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Der Himmel bringe her dem Herrn
Ehre und Macht!
Die Erde bringe her dem Herrn
Ehre und Macht!
Let heaven offer to the Lord
glory and power!
Let the earth offer to the Lord
glory and power!
Alles danke dem Herrn!
Danket dem Herrn und rühmt seinen Namen
und preiset seine Herrlichkeit!
Let everything give thanks the Lord!
Give thanks to the Lord and honour his name
and praise his glory!
Alles, was Odem hat,
lobe den Herrn, Halleluja!
Let everything that has breath
praise the Lord, hallelujah!
She has recorded Handel’s Messiah for CD and
DVD and this has been screened several times
on national television. Recent releases include
the award-winning Mozart Arias with the
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Songs of
the Auvergne with The Queensland Orchestra.
Sara Macliver
Sara Macliver is one of Australia’s most popular
and versatile artists, and is regarded as one of
the leading exponents of Baroque repertoire in
Australia. She is a regular performer with all the
Australian symphony orchestras as well as the
Perth, Melbourne and Sydney Festivals, Musica
Viva, Melbourne Chorale, Australian Chamber
Orchestra and Australian Brandenburg Orchestra,
among others.
Sara Macliver has recently been awarded an
honorary doctorate from the University of
Western Australia in recognition of her services
to singing.
Elena Xanthoudakis
Engagements in 2008 included concerts with
the Melbourne, Adelaide, West Australian and
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, appearances
at the New Zealand and Musica Viva Festivals,
and the role of Jonathan in Pinchgut Opera’s
production of Charpentier’s David and Jonathan.
Elena Xanthoudakis is a graduate of the Victorian
College of the Arts, the University of Melbourne
and the Guildhall School of Music, London,
where she received her Master of Music degree
with distinction in 2005. She also studied at the
Maggio Musicale in Florence.
In 2009 Sara Macliver sings the role of Susanna
in The Marriage of Figaro with West Australian
Opera, performs Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Haydn’s The
Creation in New Zealand, Christmas concerts in
Hong Kong and an all-Mozart program with the
Sydney Symphony, and works with the
Australian Chamber Orchestra, amongst many
other engagements.
Laureate of many prestigious competitions in
Australia, internationally Elena Xanthoudakis has
won the 2003 Maria Callas Grand Prix (Oratorio –
Lied), the 2006 International Mozart Competition
in Salzburg, and the first prize (female) and
overall grand prize in the Second International
Adam Didur Opera Singers Competition. She
was a prize-winner in Placido Domingo’s
international opera contest Operalia.
Sara Macliver records for ABC Classics, with
more than 30 CDs including Fauré’s Requiem,
Orff’s Carmina burana, Haydn arias with the
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and two duet
albums with mezzo-soprano Sally-Anne Russell.
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Elena Xanthoudakis’ concert repertoire includes
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Rossini’s Petite
Messe Solennelle and Stabat Mater, Bach’s
Missa Brevis, B minor Mass, St John and St
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Matthew Passions, the Requiems of Fauré and
Mozart, the Glorias of Vivaldi and Poulenc,
Handel’s Messiah and Jephtha, and Mozart’s
Exsultate, jubilate and concert arias.
several prestigious scholarships including Opera
Foundation Australia’s Metropolitan Opera
Award, the McDonald’s Operatic Aria and the
Glyndebourne Festival Opera Award. He was
also an Opera Australia Young Artist.
Operatic roles have included Pamina (The Magic
Flute), Leila (The Pearl Fishers), Anne Trulove
(The Rake’s Progress), Barbarina (The Marriage
of Figaro), La Contessa di Folleville (Rossini’s Il
viaggio a Reims) for Florence’s Maggio Musicale,
Frasquita (Carmen) for the Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden and for English National Opera,
Xenia (Boris Godunov ) for Opéra National du
Rhin, and Miss Schlesen (Philip Glass’
Satyagraha) and Krista (The Makropulos Case)
for English National Opera, the latter having
been recorded and released by Chandos.
In April 2007 Jaewoo Kim relocated to the
United Kingdom. Since then his engagements
have included the role of Ottavio (Don Giovanni )
for Opera Australia, Tamino (The Magic Flute ) for
Lyric Opera Productions in Dublin, Alfredo (La
traviata ) for Longborough Opera, and Ferrando
(Così fan tutte) and the title role in Orphée aux
enfers for Diva Opera throughout Europe.
More recently Jaewoo Kim has sung Tamino and
Ferrando for Opera Australia, Gerald (Lakmé ) for
Opera Australia and Canterbury Opera, Arbace in
a touring production of Idomeneo in Italy, and
Ottavio and the title role in Faust for NBR New
Zealand Opera.
Most recently Elena Xanthoudakis sang Clorinda
(La Cenerentola) at Covent Garden, Iris (Semele)
at St John’s Smith Square, Adina (The Elixir of
Love) for Victorian Opera in Australia and
Scottish Opera, and Blonde (The Abduction from
the Seraglio) for Opera North as well as
appearing in concert in Quebec City, Melbourne,
Scotland and at the London Proms. The 2010
season sees her returning to the ENO, and
making her debut in the title role of Lucia di
Lammermoor in Canada.
Concert engagements have included Cassio in
Otello for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra,
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 for the Sydney and
Melbourne Symphony Orchestras and The
Queensland Orchestra, Messiah with Sydney
Philharmonia and the Melbourne Symphony,
Haydn’s Nelson Mass for the Tasmanian
Symphony Orchestra and The Creation for Opera
Queensland, and a lunchtime recital for
broadcast on ABC Radio. He was also the tenor
soloist for the Sydney Opera House’s 25th
Anniversary Concert.
Jaewoo Kim
Born in Korea, Jaewoo Kim is a graduate of the
Canberra School of Music and the winner of
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Highlights away from Hobart’s Federation
Concert Hall include Beethoven’s Symphony No.
9 at the Port Arthur Historic Site (2006), Messiah
at Hobart’s St David’s Cathedral (2007) and Best
of British at Launceston’s Albert Hall (2009).
Links with interstate choruses have created the
opportunity for members of the TSO Chorus to
sing Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms and
Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe under Oleg Caetani,
The Creation under Richard Hickox and Elgar’s
The Dream of Gerontius under Vladimir
Ashkenazy, at the Sydney Opera House.
His ever-expanding choral repertoire includes the
masses of Schubert and Haydn and
Mendelssohn’s Elijah for the Canberra Choral
Society, Mahler’s Eighth Symphony for the
Canberra National Multicultural Festival, Bach’s
Christmas Oratorio in Korea, and Bach’s St John
Passion, Britten’s Spring Symphony and Janáček’s
Glagolitic Mass for the Llewellyn Choir. He has
also performed with the Korean Philharmonic
Choir at Sydney Town Hall and with Ensemble XXI
in Sakhalin and Moscow in Russia.
TSO Chorus
Sopranos
Christine Boyce
Belinda Flowers
Sheila Knowlton
Stephanie McDonald
Charlotte McKercher
Christine Ovens
Julianne Panckridge
Sharon Sherman
Joy Tattam
Sally Ward
Susannah Williams
Established in 1992, the TSO Chorus is an
auditioned group of 70 voices. June Tyzack has
been Chorusmaster since 2001, assisted by
repetiteur Stephanie Abercromby. Andrew
Bainbridge is Assistant Chorusmaster.
The TSO Chorus performs a wide range of
liturgical, secular and operatic works including
Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Mass in Time of War
and The Creation, Vaughan Williams’ Sinfonia
Antartica, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Bizet’s
Carmen. In April 2009 it gave the world premiere
of Richard Mills’ Passion According to St Mark ;
other premieres have included Maria Grenfell’s
Night Songs (2008) and James Ledger’s
Wandering Star (2006). The TSO Chorus gave the
Tasmanian premiere of Peter Sculthorpe’s
Requiem (2005) and has performed Requiem
settings by Brahms, Fauré and Mozart.
Altos
Joanna Crisp
Jennifer Furst
Sue Harradence
Christine Harris
Mary McArthur
Eryl Raymond
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Gillian von Bertouch
Beth Warren
Michelle Warren
Tenors
Andrew Bainbridge
Bill Field
Michael Kregor
Tony Marshall
Paul Oxley
David Pitt
James Powell-Davies
Christopher Spiegel
Basses
Peter Cretan
Greg Foot
Garry Harradence
Peter Hepburn
Duncan How
Tim Oxley
Tony Parker
Steve Raymond
Christopher Schokman
Richard Shoobridge
Anthony Sprent
Grant Taylor
Highlights have included Mahler’s Eighth
Symphony in London under Sir Simon Rattle as
part of the BBC Proms in August 2002 (the first
Australian choir to sing at the Proms);
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in a worldwide
satellite TV broadcast as part of the Opening
Ceremony of the Nagano Winter Olympics
(1998); two concerts with Barbra Streisand
during her Timeless tour, and recording a tour
CD; Mahler’s Eighth Symphony as the opening
concert of the Olympic Arts Festival in August
2000; performing in the Opening Ceremony of
the Games of the XXVII Olympiad in Sydney;
and Britten’s War Requiem at the 2007 UWA
Perth International Arts Festival. Sydney
Philharmonia’s Dawn Chorus, performed for the
2009 Sydney Festival on four beaches, has been
nominated for a Helpmann Award.
Chorusmaster: June Tyzack
Repetiteur: Stephanie Abercromby
Sydney Philharmonia Chamber Singers
Formed in 1920, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs is
Australia’s largest choral organisation and
occupies a unique position in the performing arts
world. With four main choirs – the 40-voice
Chamber Singers, the 100-voice Symphony
Chorus, the youth-focussed 50-voice Vox and the
300-voice Festival Chorus – Sydney Philharmonia
presents its own annual concert series in the
Sydney Opera House and City Recital Hall Angel
Place, as well as acting as chorus for the Sydney
Symphony Orchestra.
Sydney Philharmonia’s 2009 season includes
Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, Handel’s Messiah
and Jephtha at the Sydney Opera House and the
City Recital Hall Angel Place, as well as a choral
pilgrimage to some of Sydney’s most beautiful
and intimate churches. In 2010, as part of the
choir’s 90th anniversary celebrations, Sydney
Philharmonia tours to the United Kingdom.
Sydney Philharmonia has worked with
conductors such as Eugene Ormandy, Otto
Klemperer, Sir David Willcocks, Sir Charles
Mackerras, Edo de Waart, Charles Dutoit,
Christopher Hogwood, Mark Elder, John Nelson,
Richard Hickox, Bruno Weil, Gianluigi Gelmetti
and Vladimir Ashkenazy. Previous Musical
Directors have included Mats Nilsson, Antony
Walker, John Grundy and Peter Seymour.
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Sopranos
Susan Anderson
Jacqui Binetsky
Anne Cooke
Karina Falland
Sue Justice
Alison Keene
Gillian Markham
Maree Tyrrell
Narelle Vance
Cathy Williamson
Altos
Gae Bristow
Catriona Debelle
Jan Fawke
Jennifer Sue Harris
Vesna Hatezic
Melinda Jefferson
Beverley Price
Aveen Stephenson
Sebastian Lang-Lessing
Tenors
Denys Gillespie
Scott McLennan
Frank Maio
Timothy Matthies
Robert Thomson
Alex Walter
Sebastian Lang-Lessing is Chief Conductor and
Artistic Director of the Tasmanian Symphony
Orchestra (TSO).
Awarded the Ferenc Fricsay Prize in Berlin at the
age of 24, he subsequently took up a conducting
post at the Hamburg State Opera, was
appointed resident conductor at the Deutsche
Oper Berlin and later Chief Conductor and
Artistic Director of the Orchestre Symphonique
et Lyrique de Nancy. Under his direction, the
Opéra de Nancy was elevated to national status,
becoming the Opéra National de Lorraine.
Basses
Ian Davies
Paul Green
Joshua Murray
Andrew Raftery
David Randall
Antony Strong
His international career started at the Opéra
Bastille de Paris, followed by engagements at
Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera,
Houston Grand Opera, Washington National
Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Opéra de
Bordeaux, and the opera houses of Oslo,
Stockholm and Cape Town. Concert
engagements have included performances with
the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Leipzig
Gewandhaus Orchestra, Hamburg Symphony
Orchestra, the principal German radio orchestras,
Orchestre de Paris, Radio France Philharmonic
Orchestra, Orchestre de Toulouse and major
orchestras in Australia. He has worked on
numerous cycles including the symphonies of
Sibelius, Schumann, Brahms, Beethoven and
Schubert, and has always been an advocate for
the music of Mendelssohn.
Chorusmaster: Brett Weymark
Rehearsal Pianist: Ben van Tienen
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Sebastian Lang-Lessing rediscovered the French
composer Guy Ropartz, and has begun a
complete recording of his symphonies which
has been acclaimed in the international press.
His CDs with the TSO include the music of Brett
Dean, the four Schumann symphonies, Mozart
Arias with Sara Macliver, Romantic Overtures,
and works by Bruch, Mendelssohn, Franck,
D’Indy and Saint-Saëns. Forthcoming TSO
recordings include Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suites,
Mozart symphonies, and Mendelssohn and
Ravel piano concertos with soloist Kirill Gerstein.
The TSO, which is resident in Hobart’s purposebuilt Federation Concert Hall, has a full
complement of 47 musicians. German-born
Sebastian Lang-Lessing has been the orchestra’s
Chief Conductor and Artistic Director since
2004. Declared a Tasmanian Icon in 1998, the
TSO enjoys a high level of support among the
Tasmanian community. Concert seasons are
presented in Hobart and Launceston, and regular
tours are made of Tasmanian regional centres.
Since 2005, the TSO has presented an annual
Sydney Season at City Recital Hall Angel Place.
International touring has taken the orchestra to
North and South America, Greece, Israel, South
Korea, China, Indonesia and Japan.
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
A leader in music of the Classical and early
Romantic periods, the Tasmanian Symphony
Orchestra enjoys a high profile nationally and
internationally through its world-wide broadcasts
and award-winning recordings. Winner of backto-back ‘Best Classical Recording’ limelight
Awards in 2007 and 2008, the TSO is the only
Australian orchestra to have released recordings
of the complete symphonies of Beethoven
and Schumann.
The TSO celebrated its 60th anniversary in
2008. Major international soloists who have
appeared with the orchestra include Daniel
Barenboim, Alfred Brendel, James Ehnes, Lisa
Gasteen, Håkan Hardenberger, Nigel Kennedy,
Radu Lupu, Igor Oistrakh, Valery Oistrakh,
Heinrich Schiff, Howard Shelley, Isaac Stern,
Paul Tortelier and Jian Wang. A versatile
orchestra, the TSO has also appeared with a
range of popular and jazz artists including Kate
Ceberano, Roberta Flack, James Morrison,
Anthony Warlow and The Whitlams.
The TSO also champions music by Australian
composers, and the Australian Music Program,
founded in 2003, is one of the TSO’s key
initiatives. To date, the TSO has released on the
ABC Classics label 18 CDs featuring works by
Australian composers ranging from Peter
Sculthorpe and Richard Meale to Elena KatsChernin and Brett Dean.
www.tso.com.au
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Executive Producers Martin Buzacott, Lyle Chan,
Robert Patterson
Recording Producer Thomas Grubb
Recording Engineer Veronika Vincze
Editing Thomas Grubb
Mastering Virginia Read and Thomas Grubb
Editorial and Production Manager Hilary Shrubb
Publications Editor Natalie Shea
Booklet Design Imagecorp Pty Ltd
Cover Photo Alpine tarn, Walls of Jerusalem
National Park, Tasmania. Ted Mead/Photolibrary
For the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
Managing Director Nicholas Heyward
Manager, Artistic Planning Simon Rogers
Australian Music Program Director
Lyndon Terracini
Concertmaster Jun Yi Ma
Recorded 7-10 August 2007 in the Federation
Concert Hall, Hobart.
ABC Classics thanks Alexandra Alewood, Katherine
Kemp and Virginia Read.
 2009 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
훿 2009 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Distributed
in Australia and New Zealand by Universal Music Group,
under exclusive licence. Made in Australia. All rights of the
owner of copyright reserved. Any copying, renting, lending,
diffusion, public performance or broadcast of this record
without the authority of the copyright owner is prohibited.
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