Sabine Meyer and Modigliani String Quartet

Transcription

MUSICA VIVA INTERNATIONAL CONCERT SEASON 2011
GERMANY | FRANCE
Sabine Meyer &
Modigliani
String Quartet
Sabine Meyer clarinet
Philippe Bernhard violin
Loïc Rio violin
Laurent Marfaing viola
François Kieffer cello
Musica Viva is assisted by the Commonwealth Government
through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Musica Viva is assisted by the NSW Government through Arts NSW.
TOUR DATES
ADELAIDE
NEWCASTLE
Tuesday 15 November, 8pm
Thursday 17 November, 7.30pm
Harold Lobb Concert Hall,
Newcastle Conservatorium
Meet the Artists after concert
Recorded for broadcast on 2NUR FM
Adelaide Town Hall
CD signing after concert
Direct broadcast on ABC Classic FM
CANBERRA
Thursday 10 November, 7pm
PERTH
Llewellyn Hall, ANU School of Music
Saturday 5 November, 7.30pm
Perth Concert Hall
MELBOURNE
Tuesday 8 November, 7pm
Elisabeth Murdoch Hall,
Melbourne Recital Centre
Recorded for broadcast on 3MBS FM
SYDNEY
Monday 7 November, 7pm
City Recital Hall Angel Place
Hetty and Egon Gordon Tribute Concert
Saturday 19 November, 8pm
Elisabeth Murdoch Hall,
Melbourne Recital Centre
Saturday 12 November, 2pm
City Recital Hall Angel Place
Direct broadcast on ABC Classic FM
ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY
Sabine Meyer and the Modigliani String Quartet will take part in an Australian Music Day for
Musica Viva In Schools on Monday 7 November from 11am to 1pm.
Sabine Meyer will present masterclasses at the Australian National Academy of Music on
Wednesday 9 November, 11am–1pm, and at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music on
Friday 11 November, 5pm–7pm. Members of the Modigliani String Quartet will present a
masterclass at ANAM on Wednesday 9 November, 11am–1pm.
The Modigliani String Quartet will appear as featured artists at the 2011 Huntington Estate
Music Festival, Mudgee.
Ian Munro and Carl Vine will be in conversation at the City of Sydney’s Glebe Library, Benledi
Room on Tuesday 8 November, 3pm–4pm.
2 Musica Viva Australia
PROGRAMS
PROGRAM ONE
PROGRAM TWO
(Adelaide, Canberra,
Melbourne 8 November,
Sydney 7 November)
(Melbourne 19 November,
Newcastle, Sydney 12 November,
Perth)
Ian MUNRO (born 1963)
Clarinet Quintet, Songs from the
Bush (2010)
18 min
Clarinet Quintet, Songs from the
Bush (2010)
18 min
I Country Dance
II Campfire and Night Sky
III Drover’s Lament
I Country Dance
Commissioned for Musica Viva Australia by
John Sharpe & Claire Armstrong
Claude DEBUSSY (1862–1918)
Robert SCHUMANN (1810–1856)
String Quartet in G minor, op 10
(c 1893)
25 min
String Quartet in A major,
op 41 no 3 (1842)
I
Animé et très décidé
(Lively and very definite)
II Assez vif et bien rythmé
(Rather quick and very rhythmic)
III Andantino, doucement expressif
(Moving along, sweetly expressive)
IV Très modéré
(At a very moderate tempo)
32 min
I
Andante espressivo (At an easy
walking pace, expressively) –
Allegro molto moderato (Fast,
but not too fast, nor too slow)
II Assai agitato (Very agitated) –
Un poco adagio (A little slowly) –
Tempo risoluto (At a resolute pace)
III Adagio molto (Very slow)
IV Allegro molto vivace (Fast and
extremely lively)
INTE R VA L
Johannes BRAHMS (1833–1897)
Clarinet Quintet in B minor,
op 115 (c 1891)
35 min
I Allegro (Fast)
II Adagio (Slow)
III Andantino (Moving along) –
Presto non assai, ma con sentimento
(Very fast but not too fast, and
with feeling)
IV Con moto (With movement)
I NT E R VAL
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART
(1756–1791)
Clarinet Quintet in A major, K581
(c 1790)
32 min
I
II
III
IV
Allegro (Fast)
Larghetto (Fairly slow)
Menuetto (Minuet) – Trio I – Trio II
Allegretto con variazioni (Fairly fast,
with variations)
Musica Viva Australia 3
TOUR SUPPORT
HETTY AND EGON GORDON
THE AMADEUS SOCIETY
The Sydney concerts of Sabine Meyer
and the Modigliani String Quartet are
made possible due to the generous
legacy of Hetty and Egon Gordon.
The tour of Sabine Meyer and the
Modigliani String Quartet is made
possible with the generous support of
the Amadeus Society.
Hetty and Egon Gordon arrived in Australia
just prior to World War II as Jewish refugees
seeking asylum. While the pair had met in
Berlin before emigrating to Australia, their
relationship only blossomed once they met
again in Sydney.
The competitive international landscape,
coupled with the tyranny of distance, has
made concert tours to Australia by some
stellar international artists increasingly difficult
to secure. In Sydney and Melbourne, a
selection of generous individuals have joined
together as members of the Amadeus Society
to build an Artistic Initiatives Fund to bring
otherwise unattainable concert artists to
Australia. Amadeus Society members also
enjoy an annual series of concerts in private
homes, which in 2011 included such artists
as the Eggner Trio, the Brentano String
Quartet and Sabine Meyer and the Modigliani
String Quartet.
During the war, Egon was called up to service
and in years to come often spoke proudly
about his time in the army. Despite the war,
their relationship continued to thrive and Egon
and Hetty happily became husband and wife.
Throughout their lives they shared their
greatest passions, including family, music and
travelling. Both Hetty and Egon were Musica
Viva subscribers for more than fifty years,
an association of which they were extremely
proud.
Hetty passed away in 1991 at the age of 81.
Egon, while missing Hetty profoundly, never
lost his sense of humour and his joie de
vivre. He maintained an active social life and
continued to attend concerts into his ninetieth
year. He donated generously and widely to
the arts and other charities. Egon passed
away in early 2007, having just celebrated his
ninetieth birthday.
Musica Viva is deeply grateful to the current
members of the Amadeus Society, who are
listed on page 26 of this concert guide.
Musica Viva is the only means by which the
extraordinary inspiration of such artists as
Sabine Meyer and the Modigliani String Quartet
can be shared, live on stage, right across
Australia. With the support of the Amadeus
Society, we can continue to do so.
© Karen Steains
FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Musical child prodigies inspire admiration
and awe, and fill us with excitement at the
unknown potential they may yet uncover.
Developing musicians reaching virtuoso
status can exhibit staggering stamina, and
astonish with the complexity of their musical
understanding.
Great artists in maturity, however, offer
precisely everything denied to the young –
technique burnished to a sheen so lustrous
that it reduces to little more than a twinkle in
the eye; life experience rich with emotion, love
and loss to provide endless layers of subtlety
and depth to the nuance of every phrase.
When selecting performers for each concert
season, I try to balance youthful vibrancy
against mature mastery for the most rounded
experience spread throughout the year. The
musicians in this concert offer both at once, in
abundance.
After almost three decades in the spotlight,
Sabine Meyer is still considered one of the
world’s greatest woodwind soloists, and is the
player most often referred to in reverential terms
by other clarinettists. At the other end of the
scale, not even a decade old, the Modigliani
String Quartet pulses with enthusiasm and
dedication, certain of the seriousness of
its endeavour, and committed to perfecting
every performance. Together they form a
formidable team to tackle the quintessential
clarinet quintets by Mozart and Brahms,
as well as a new quintet by Ian Munro, our
Featured Composer for 2011. This work,
Songs from the Bush, was written especially
for these performers, and was commissioned
for Musica Viva by John Sharpe and Claire
Armstrong.
CARL VINE
Artistic Director
Musica Viva Concert Insights
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Our Online Concert Talks which you can watch at your leisure offer a deeper dimension to the concert experience.
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© Keith Saunders
ABOUT THE MUSIC
PROGRAM ONE
Clarinet Quintet, Songs from the Bush
(2010)
I Country Dance
Ian Munro, Musica Viva’s Featured Composer
for 2011, is himself a keen chamber musician,
perhaps most familiar to local audiences as the
pianist in the Australia Ensemble. He is also
acclaimed around the world as a concert
pianist, with multiple prizes at competitions in
Spain (Maria Canals), Italy (Busoni), Portugal
(Vianna da Motta) and the UK, where his second
prize at the 1987 Leeds International Piano
Competition established his international profile.
His career as a composer took off in 2003,
when his first large-scale work, Dreams,
for solo piano and orchestra, won the
composition strand of the Queen Elisabeth
International Competition in Brussels, and
was performed by the Competition’s twelve
piano finalists. This prompted a string of
commissions including the orchestral work
Blue Rags (2005) and the piano quintet
Divertissement sur le nom d’Erik Satie
(2006). More recent works include the song
cycle Letter to a Friend for mezzo-soprano
Elizabeth Campbell, and Black is the Night for
Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber
Orchestra, both completed in 2009.
Ian Munro’s music, says Musica Viva Artistic
Director Carl Vine, ‘speaks with a strong,
engaging voice – fresh and natural with
sophistication and wit reflecting the enormous
width of his performing experience. Although
his music is often technically demanding,
it is also considerate of the players and
immediately appealing to its audience.’
This year’s International Concert Season has
featured four works by Ian Munro – a piano
quintet which he premiered with the Goldner
String Quartet in August/September, the
piano trio Tales from Old Russia and his String
Quartet no 1 From an Exhibition of Australian
Woodcuts, performed respectively by the
Eggner Trio and the Brentano Quartet, and
this clarinet quintet Songs from the Bush,
created for Sabine Meyer and the Modigliani
String Quartet.
The composer writes:
My clarinet quintet Songs from the Bush was
inspired by folk melodies from both sides of
the Australian colonial frontier, and is meant
as a personal evocation of historical musical
elements that formed part of Australia’s past,
as well as its present.
ABOUT THE MUSIC
The three movements – Country Dance,
Campfire and Night Sky and Drover’s Lament –
draw material from three sources. My aging but
treasured copy of John Meredith’s Folk Songs
of Australia, with its rambling, incomplete
survey of folk tunes collected in New South
Wales during the 1950s and 60s, provided
such gems as ‘The Wild Rover’, ‘Shores of
Botany Bay’ (both heard in highly modified
form in the first movement) and the lonesome
immigrant’s lament ‘Sixteen Thousand Miles’
(heard at the opening of the third movement).
One of the most prolific of Meredith’s
contributors was the gifted amateur violinist
Sally Sloane, who lived not far from me at
Teralba on Lake Macquarie. It is her rendition
of an unnamed Irish jig that suggested the
central dance section of Country Dance.
She and the other old-timers, lovingly and
patiently recorded over more than a decade,
formed a living link to the colonial era of their
grandparents, who had passed down the folk
traditions of their homelands.
Opening and closing the piece is a homage to
the Indigenous people who shared the colonial
world of the folk singers’ ancestors. A melody
freely developed from a Walmajarri children’s
song collected by Alice Moyle at La Grange
in 1964 bears an interesting, if coincidental,
resemblance to ‘Sixteen Thousand Miles’,
and serves to show a link and a sympathy
between the two cultures in ways that words
can struggle to express, and history might tend
to deny.
The third musical source, of course, is simply
my own little fantasy world, and Campfire and
Night Sky carries no folk melody, nor does it
hold any symbolism beyond a wistful fancy
that there was once a world of honest drovers,
campfires and starry nights in which to tell
unlikely tales and share old songs without
doing anyone any harm.
© Ian Munro
Claude DEBUSSY (1862–1918)
String Quartet in G minor, op 10
(c 1893)
I
Animé et très décidé (Lively and
very definite)
II Assez vif et bien rythmé
(Rather quick and very rhythmic)
III Andantino, doucement expressif
(Moving along, sweetly expressive)
IV Très modéré (At a very moderate
tempo)
It’s often said that the birth of modern music
took place in 1894 with Debussy’s Prélude à
L’Après-midi d’un faune for orchestra. With
this landmark work he broke with all extant
Germanic traditions of logical rigour in form
and development, refusing to follow any
natural post-Romantic evolution of the music
of Beethoven and Wagner. Debussy sought a
new palette of colour, sensation, fleeting mood
and relaxed form. This new ‘Impressionistic’
style (a term he himself shunned) was
distinctively French and distinctively his own,
and would come to have a lasting influence on
classical and popular music.
Such a prosaic title as ‘String Quartet in
G minor, op 10’ is hardly the hoped-for
impressionistic evocation one might thus
expect from Debussy. His ‘First String
Quartet’ (despite best-laid plans, he never
wrote another) occupies a unique position in
Debussy’s œuvre, bearing the only traditional
title of all his works, and being his sole
composition in traditional form.
The Quartet follows a conventional fourmovement pattern: the first in sonata form,
then a rhythmic scherzo, followed by a slow,
lyrical movement and concluding with a lively
finale. It takes only a moment to open up this
work and discover that what lies behind the
throughout, Debussy worked his source
material, transforming the melody into an
almost imperceptibly changing series of
richly imaginative variations through melodic,
harmonic, rhythmic and textural invention.
Composing this work caused some heartache.
Debussy wrote to his colleague André
Poniatowski, ‘I think I can finally show you
the last movement of the quartet, which has
made me really miserable!’ When presenting
the work to his publishers, Debussy undersold
himself, accepting a modest 250 francs.
Even they were, as Debussy wrote, ‘cynical
enough about it to freely admit that what they
were paying me didn’t cover all the labour this
“work” has entailed.’
beige façade of the title and construction is an
entirely new repertoire of colour, texture and
invention: a sound world which looks forward
to the new musical language of his orchestral
Prélude of the following year.
Novel textures and tonal effects feature in
the Quartet, from the delicately subtle to
the expansively grand. Exotic scales and
unconventional chords and key changes create
melodies and harmonies unique for their time.
The work is also a compendium of stringplaying techniques. Most striking, perhaps, is
the Quartet’s rhythmic vitality: cross-rhythms
and ostinati (repeated musical cells) abound,
syncopations are rife, and textures are
constantly shimmering and shifting.
Debussy also employs a compositional
device previously used by fellow countryman
Hector Berlioz: a signature melody unifying
the movements. Berlioz introduced the idée
fixe (literally, ‘fixed idea’) in his Symphonie
fantastique of 1830; Debussy applied the
same concept, incorporating the opening
theme of his Quartet in every movement.
However, whereas Berlioz repeated the
unifying melody essentially unchanged
Dedicated to Ernest Chausson, and first
performed by the Ysayë Quartet, the work’s
reception was mixed, from praise to
bewilderment and scorn. The expressive
opinion of one critic was that Debussy was
‘rotten with talent’. Quite the backhanded
compliment!
Johannes BRAHMS (1833–1897)
Clarinet Quintet in B minor, op 115
(c 1891)
I Allegro (Fast)
II Adagio (Slow)
III Andantino (Moving along) –
Presto non assai, ma con
sentimento (Very fast but not too
fast, and with feeling)
IV Con moto (With movement)
In December 1890, at age 57, Brahms sent
part of the manuscript of his Second String
Quartet to his publisher with a note: ‘The
enclosed is the ending of the first movement.
With that scrap of paper you can take your
farewell from my music – because quite
generally it is time to stop...’
ABOUT THE MUSIC
For some time, Brahms had been confiding
to friends his concerns that the task of
composing any major works was getting
beyond him. ‘I’ve been tormenting myself
with all kinds of things, a symphony, chamber
music and other stuff, and nothing will come
of it. I was used to everything being clear to
me. It seems it’s not going the way it used to.
I’m just not going to do any more.’
A few months later, his publisher was startled
to receive from Brahms his last will and
testament, with a request that the publisher
agree to be its executor. Happily, however,
Brahms was not yet done with composing, or
with life.
A year or so later, Brahms visited Meiningen
to hear the orchestra with which he had had
a long and happy association, under its new
conductor Hans von Bülow. There, he was
impressed by the beauty of the playing of
the orchestra’s Principal Clarinettist, Richard
Mühlfeld, with whom Brahms struck up a lively
friendship.
Brahms became enthralled by the clarinet’s
subtle and sinuous voice, and by the
expressiveness of Mühlfeld’s playing. The
clarinet, it seemed to him, had the voice of
a fine mezzo-soprano (for several of whom
Brahms had entertained a special fondness
throughout his life). ‘Fräulein Klarinette,’ he
called it.
This new infatuation drew Brahms out of
retirement and called forth some of his
most beautiful, reflective and sophisticated
chamber music: a Clarinet Trio, a Quintet for
clarinet and strings, and two clarinet sonatas.
For the Quintet, however, he reserved a
particular affection: ‘[It is] a far greater piece of
foolishness.’ Clara Schumann, trusted friend
and ally, also celebrated the work: ‘It is really
marvellous, the wailing clarinet takes hold of
one; it is most moving. And what interesting
music, deep and full of meaning!’
Brahms takes care in this Quintet – only the
fourth significant work for this combination
since Mozart’s – to make each of the voices
an equal partner. From the first moment, the
music is steeped with yearning. Harmonically
ambiguous, the opening bars contain the
seeds which germinate every subsequent
movement.
The love song of the tender Adagio belongs
to the clarinet; lyrical, wistful and rhapsodic,
and supported by muted strings. Sunlight
breaks through in the Andantino, bringing
momentary warmth. The finale takes a cue
from Beethoven with a theme and variations
structure, albeit with a Hungarian flavour,
before coming full circle to the opening theme
of the first movement.
PROGRAM TWO
Clarinet Quintet, Songs from the Bush
(2010)
I Country Dance
See page 7.
Robert SCHUMANN (1810–1856)
String Quartet in A major, op 41 no 3
(1842)
I
Andante espressivo (At an easy
walking pace, expressively) –
Allegro molto moderato (Fast,
but not too fast, nor too slow)
II Assai agitato (Very agitated) –
Un poco adagio (A little slowly) –
Tempo risoluto (At a resolute pace)
III Adagio molto (Very slow)
IV Allegro molto vivace (Fast and
extremely lively)
What drives a composer to immerse himself in
one particular genre for a full year? Consider
the benefits of an intensive language course.
Is one’s understanding not greater at the
conclusion of such an immersive activity than
it otherwise might be with simple weekly
lessons? So too for Schumann; 1842 was his
year of chamber music. The preceding two
years had been devoted systematically to
song and symphonic music respectively.
Schumann composed his three op 41
string quartets in rapid succession in the
months of June and July. He had made
previous attempts at the genre, held by
many composers as the pinnacle of musical
expression and expertise. In a letter to his
future wife Clara Wieck in 1836 Schumann
wrote, ‘The thought of the quartets gives me
pleasure. The piano is getting too narrow
for me. In composing now I often hear a
lot of things I can barely suggest.’ First and
foremost Schumann had been a composer for
the piano.
The Schumanns were married in 1840, and
they enjoyed two happy years before the
first big marital crisis. Clara was a supremely
gifted concert pianist in her own right. While
on a concert tour of north German cities,
Schumann was snubbed by court officials in
favour of his talented wife. Not content to play
the ‘handbag’, he returned alone to Leipzig,
finding solace in contrapuntal exercises. He
also pored over the string quartets of Haydn
and Mozart. After reconciling with Clara,
they studied these scores together at the
keyboard.
ABOUT THE MUSIC
A seven-bar introduction immediately
presents an audio ‘cue’ for the listener – a
descending interval of a fifth, which then
heralds the beginning of the first theme, plays
a significant role in the second theme, and
recurs throughout the remaining movements.
An unsettled Assai agitato takes us away
to the minor key and for a full 96 bars plays
ambiguously with the sense of pulse. A set of
variations follows: the first a determined fugue,
the second marked this time by a rising fifth,
while the third presents the theme again, now
in a firm metre.
Clara Wieck
Trying his hand at the string quartet,
Schumann was clear about what was
required: ‘First, the proper quartet should
avoid symphonic furore and aim rather for a
conversational tone in which everyone has
something to say. Second, the composer
must possess an intimate knowledge of the
genre’s history, but should strive to produce
more than mere imitations of Haydn, Mozart,
and Beethoven.’
Critically and collegially well received, the
op 41 quartets have nevertheless drawn
some criticism as being ‘music for string
quartet, but not string quartet music’.
Pianistic textures dominate, typically
Schumannesque in their melodic detail. Of
the three, the third is the most lyrical and
emotionally intense. (Interestingly, following
these quartets, Schumann was never again to
write a chamber work which did not include
piano.)
The slow movement is in a sense composed
backwards: Schumann’s first meandering,
decorated theme is gradually pared back
over successive statements to a more
humble conclusion, as if working back
towards first principles. A dotted rhythm
marks the opening of the final Allegro
molto vivace, and there follow many typical
final movement compositional devices,
contrapuntal imitation and an extended rondo
among them.
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART
(1756–1791)
Clarinet Quintet in A major, K581
(c 1790)
I
II
III
IV
Allegro (Fast)
Larghetto (Fairly slow)
Menuetto (Minuet) – Trio I – Trio II
Allegretto con variazioni (Fairly fast,
with variations)
How to write a hit à la Mozart:
1) Take a burgeoning and popular genre – in
this case the string quartet – to build your
musical foundations. Engage their voices
in a dialogue. Encourage discussion and
debate between equals.
2) Introduce the star of the show. Impress
with virtuosic feats.
3) Forget not that audiences will be most
moved by the sound of the human voice.
Let your feature instrument ‘sing’.
Was Mozart following a formula as he
composed his perennially popular Clarinet
Quintet? Unlikely. At least, not in any
sense that we might today associate with
manufacturers of guaranteed ‘hits’, like Stock,
Aitken & Waterman in the late 1980s. And yet,
the three ingredients listed above, combined
with the Classical master’s imagination, skill
and invention of melody, have guaranteed an
audience for Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet. (And
a spot in the Top 10 of Australia’s best-loved
chamber works.)
Even when in conversation with living
composers, it’s difficult to grasp the seeds
of compositional inspiration: a combination
of sounds perhaps? An exploration of
structure? Sometimes it’s nothing less
mercenary than fulfilling a commission.
For Mozart in 1789, it was the warmth of
friendship and musical admiration he had
for clarinettist and carouser Anton Stadler.
A musician in the court orchestra in Vienna,
Stadler was renowned for his musicality
and virtuosity on an instrument which was,
at the time and at best, somewhat crude
and imperfect in its construction and tone
production.
Stadler was particularly noted for the quality
of sound he brought to the lower register
of the clarinet, the so-called chalumeau
range. To exploit this more fully, he devised
an instrument with an extension, along
similar lines to the basset horn, allowing for
an additional major third to a low C. This
was known as the basset clarinet. It was
for this instrument that Mozart composed
his Clarinet Concerto K622 and the Clarinet
Quintet. Translating the Quintet onto a modern
instrument requires fewer transpositions than
does the Concerto, though many performers
choose to perform both on a basset clarinet
reproduction, for the sake of the beautiful tone
of the lowest notes.
Friendship with fellow Freemason Stadler
might not have been something Mrs Mozart
would have chosen for her son, had she had
a say. Drinking and gambling were favourite
pastimes. Indeed, the roguish Stadler
was even able to borrow money from a
ABOUT THE MUSIC
‘Ah, lo veggio’, one of the more challenging
tenor arias in all of Mozart’s operas.
Cast in four movements and scored for
clarinet, two violins, viola and cello, the
Quintet opens with an equal discourse
between all parties. The mood is gentle,
even a little sad. The strings present three
lyrical themes with which they coax the
clarinet into the conversation. In the second
movement Larghetto, the intense beauty of
the clarinet’s singing voice realises a wistful
and sometimes pained longing. The aria
becomes a duet as the violin enters to
soothe, calm and reassure his troubled
companion.
Anton Stadler: silhouette
penniless Mozart. Confoundingly, however,
a contemporaneous Viennese critic wrote
of Stadler: ‘I would not have thought that
a clarinet could imitate the human voice so
deceptively as you imitate it. Your instrument
is so soft, so delicate in tone that no-one who
has a heart can resist it.’
The years 1789 and 1790 were the most
difficult of Mozart’s career. He had fallen
out of favour as a performer with the fickle
Viennese public. Financial difficulties mounted.
Understandably there was a decline in his
compositional output. Relief came in the form
of a commission for a new opera from the
Emperor Joseph II. As Mozart commenced
work on Così fan tutte he would also have
been working on the Clarinet Quintet, and
the two share the same golden warmth
and mellowness of mood. Indeed, Mozart
determined that a sketch for the finale of the
Quintet would better suit the character of
Ferrando in Act Two, and thus was born
A change of mood is struck in the Menuetto.
The clarinet exerts charm, making every
attempt to interest the strings in a rustic
romp. Pausing for breath in the first of two
Trios (an unusual feature), the clarinet lets
the string quartet alone to enjoy an elegant
moment. The minuet returns before the
second Trio, in which the violin eventually
capitulates to the clarinet’s simple arpeggiated
theme and at times comic exploration of its
lower register, and lets his hair down to join
in the fun. To end, Mozart offers a theme and
variations, founded on a simple but catchy
tune in which he deftly weaves together every
combination of instruments, and challenges
the clarinet with dazzling virtuosity.
Pure box-office gold.
About the Music and Further Exploration
© Gevevieve Lang 2011
MEET THE MUSICIANS
© Keith Saunders
SABINE MEYER
Oleg Maisenberg, Leif Ove Andsnes, Fazil Say,
Martin Helmchen, Juliane Banse, the Hagen
Quartet and the Tokyo and Modigliani String
Quartets. In 1983, with her husband Reiner
Wehle and brother Wolfgang Meyer, she founded
the Trio di Clarone; in 1988 she founded the
Sabine Meyer Wind Ensemble, bringing together
leading wind players from around the world for
regular concerts in Germany and abroad, with
repertoire ranging from classic to avant-garde.
Sabine Meyer studied with Otto Hermann
in Stuttgart and Hans Deinzer in Hanover,
then embarked on a career as an orchestral
musician, becoming a member of the
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and then
Principal Clarinet of the Berlin Philharmonic,
a post she abandoned in response to the
growing demands of her solo career. She
has been engaged by the world’s leading
orchestras including the Vienna, London and
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras, Chicago
Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo’s NHK Symphony
Orchestra, Orchestra of Suisse Romande and
the broadcast orchestras of Vienna, Basel,
Warsaw, Prague and Budapest. It is partly
due to her that the clarinet, a solo instrument
previously underestimated, recaptured the
attention of the concert platform.
Sabine Meyer is particularly interested in
the field of chamber music, where she has
explored a wide range of repertoire with such
colleagues as Heinrich Schiff, Gidon Kremer,
Both as a soloist and chamber musician,
Sabine Meyer is a prominent champion for
contemporary music; Jean Françaix, Edison
Denisov, Harald Genzmer, Toshio Hosokawa,
Niccolò Castiglioni, Manfred Trojahn and Aribert
Reimann are among the many composers who
have dedicated works to her. In 2008 she gave
the world premiere of Peter Eötvös’s Concerto
for Two Clarinets, with her brother Wolfgang
Meyer, and Jörg Widmann is also writing a
double concerto for the pair, for 2013.
Sabine Meyer has recorded extensively for
EMI Classics in repertoire ranging from preClassical to contemporary, and covering all
the important solo concertos and chamber
music works for clarinet. ECHO Klassik awardwinning titles include an album of clarinet
concertos by Johann and Carl Stamitz, works
by Weber, Mendelssohn and Baermann with
the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and
the Mozart Concerto with Claudio Abbado
and the Berlin Philharmonic.
Other accolades include the 2007 Niedersachsen
Praetorius Music Prize and the Brahms Prize
of the Schleswig Holstein Brahms Association;
Sabine Meyer is also a member of the
Hamburg Academy of the Arts, and in 2010
was admitted by the French government to
the rank of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.
Sabine Meyer has been a professor at the
Lübeck Hochschule für Musik since 1993.
MEET THE MUSICIANS
© Keith Saunders
MODIGLIANI STRING QUARTET
The Modigliani String Quartet was formed in
2003 and first attracted international attention
in 2004 by winning the TROMP string quartet
competition in Eindhoven. The Quartet took
First Prize at the Vittorio Rimbotti competition
in Florence in 2005 and won the highly
prestigious Young Concert Artists Auditions in
New York in 2006, allowing it to regularly tour
in the US since then.
The Modigliani String Quartet has become
one of the world’s most sought after
chamber ensembles, performing in Vienna’s
Musikverein, Wigmore Hall, the Auditorium
du Louvre, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center,
Théâtre du Châtelet, LSO St Luke’s, La
Fenice, Tokyo’s Kioi Hall and at the Lucerne,
Rheingau, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and
Gstaad Menuhin Festivals, and appearing
alongside the Emerson, Jerusalem and Takács
Quartets. It was selected for the 2011–12
ECHO Rising Star tour of Europe’s most
prestigious halls, also touring to the United
States and Japan in the same season. Future
engagements include performances in the
Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Théâtre des
Champs-Elysées, Luxembourg’s Philharmonie
and the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.
Amongst the distinguished artists with whom
the Modigliani String Quartet has collaborated
are pianists Michel Dalberto, Abdel Rahman
El Bacha, Eric Le Sage and Jean-Frédéric
Neuburger, cellists Anne Gastinel, Gary
Hoffman and Sol Gabetta, and clarinettist
Paul Meyer.
The Modigliani String Quartet released its
most recent album, a Brahms disc, in January
this year. Its previous CD, of Mendelssohn’s
quartets, was CD of the Month in the German
magazine FonoForum. An album featuring
music by Haydn has also gained several
prizes and awards including the Grand Prix du
Disque of the Charles Cros Academy.
After winning a Premier Prix at the Paris
Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique,
the Modigliani String Quartet studied
with the Ysaÿe Quartet in Paris, attended
masterclasses by Walter Levin and György
Kurtág, and had the opportunity to work with
the Artemis Quartet at the Berlin University of
the Arts.
Thanks to the generosity and support of
private sponsors, the Modigliani String
Quartet plays on outstanding Italian
instruments. Philippe Bernhard plays a
1780 violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini;
Loïc Rio plays a 1734 violin by Alessandro
Gagliano; Laurent Marfaing plays a 1590 viola
by Mariani; and François Kieffer plays the
Matteo Goffriller 1706 ‘ex-Warburg’ cello.
This is Sabine Meyer and the Modigliani String
Quartet’s debut tour for Musica Viva.
© Keith Saunders
NO STRINGS ATTACHED
INTERVIEW WITH
SABINE MEYER
Today is a good day for Sabine Meyer. She is
at home with her husband in their beautifully
restored historic Lübeck townhouse.
Later they will cook dinner together; fresh
asparagus is on the menu. Her recent solo
tour to Palermo and Koblenz went well, and
a rewarding visit to their farm house a few
kilometres out of town, where they have two
horses and a dog, is in sight.
‘These days, I can say what I want to do and
how much I want to do, with which musicians
and when,’ says Meyer. ‘I have a teaching
post which I share with my husband here in
Lübeck, I perform with a pianist, with string
quartets, with a wind ensemble, with the Trio
di Clarone, and I have a project with a singer.
I have two children. I think it’s enough. It’s
perfect.’
Sometimes, she admits, it is a challenge to
balance all these different aspects, and she
will be even happier when she reduces the
number of concerts she plays each year
NO STRINGS ATTACHED
from 80 to an average of 60. But on the
whole, she is content.
As well she might be. Meyer has held her
place as one of the world’s top woodwind
soloists for more than a quarter of a century.
The days when she was known chiefly for her
brief stint as the first woman member of the
Berlin Philharmonic are long gone. Today, she
is one of Germany’s best-loved musicians,
a star known for her fresh approach and
peerless virtuosity, one of the first names that
leaps to mind when the clarinet is mentioned.
© Keith Saunders
That’s not always a comfortable position to
hold. ‘It doesn’t get any easier,’ admits Meyer.
‘On the one hand it’s hard because you have
your own expectations about how you must
play. On the other hand, the public has the
right to expect certain things of you. But I
think that one just wants to play music in an
honest way.’
She didn’t ever plan to be at the top of the
pile. ‘I never wanted to be more than I was. I
always climbed the ladder one rung at a time,
in a very natural way.’
Meyer is disarmingly self-effacing about her
English, which is better than she seems
to think, and in general so modest that it
borders on painfully shy. It’s hard to reconcile
this anxious, vulnerable creature with the
glamorous jet-setting clarinettist. But for her,
a life spent between quiet stretches at home
and nerve-wracking challenges on stage is the
most natural thing in the world. ‘Music is one
thing where I can speak and bring out all the
emotions, to be together with my instrument.
That’s my life. Music is important for us as
human beings.’
Nerves, she adds, are a strange thing.
‘Sometimes you can’t explain it. I played in
Carnegie Hall, and I was completely calm.
Then I play at the music school here in
Lübeck, and I am so nervous that I think,
“Why?” Of course, a little nervousness is part
of it. For me it’s always something special.
I’ve played the Mozart Concerto often, but
I always have the feeling that I’m going
on stage for the first time. There’s always
something different – a different conductor, a
different orchestra, a different hall – and it will
always be created anew in that moment.’
It is partly this capacity for endless reinvention
that has made Meyer a defining personality
in the recent history of her instrument. Her
ability to colour the clarinet’s sound in a
myriad different ways was seminal to the
development of playing technique in the late
20th century. With characteristic modesty, she
attributes all this to general trends, and to the
work of her teacher, Hans Deinzer.
‘The German school of clarinet playing used
to be very straight. The tone quality was
monochrome – always identically beautiful.
But thanks to people like Deinzer, the clarinet
has made enormous progress. He taught us
that you have to draw every possible sound
colour from the instrument. Since then, the
sound has become more gentle, and also a
little more elegant.’
The days are gone when national schools of
wind playing were so radically different from
one another that you could instantly tell which
orchestra was playing, she says with a touch
of regret. ‘The French clarinet sound used to
be very thin – small and fine and extremely
articulated. Today the French clarinet has
become unbelievably dark and round and soft
and voluminous. In England people still play
with a lot of vibrato, which I find very beautiful,
though it has become less. The French and
Italian sounds have become more similar. It’s
always a question of filling ever-bigger halls.
The brass sounds more saturated, and the
wind has to be audible over that, so they have
to gain in intensity.’
For clarinets, adds Meyer, there is the added
problem of reed sensitivity. ‘Everything
depends on the mouthpiece and the reed.
They have to work together. Our voice is
this small piece of wood. Air pressure and
humidity affect it – wood is living material.
It’s always changing, and mostly that’s not
positive!
‘A recent development is hydro boxes for
reeds, which hold a stable humidity. Before,
when I used to fly from Berlin to Munich, it
was always difficult. In Berlin it would be easy,
and then in Munich the reed would become
unbelievably heavy, just because of the couple
of hundred metres difference in altitude. You
just think, “God help me!” You have to play
in the evening, and you have to be sure that
your material will work. That’s always an
adventure.’
As if that were not enough by way of
uncertainty, Meyer agreed for this Australian
tour to perform with the Modigliani String
Quartet, with whom she had never worked
before, in a program which includes a work
by Ian Munro, whom she had also yet to
encounter, at the time of our conversation.
‘It’s very new for me,’ she admits. ‘Normally I
know the chamber musicians I play with very
well, also personally. And normally I wouldn’t
agree to play a piece by a composer I don’t
know. So let’s see!’
Meyer did seek out CDs and DVDs of the
Modigliani String Quartet before agreeing.
She was impressed by what she saw.
‘They give a very professional impression.
They play in a relaxed way, and yet it’s very
spontaneous. I found that exciting.’
As for the Munro, Meyer is deeply committed
to performing new music wherever she finds
herself. ‘It’s very important to present new
music in the normal concert context.
NO STRINGS ATTACHED
We don’t live in a museum. The public also
enjoys a challenge. And I’ve never had a bad
experience with new music. On the contrary
– people listen even more attentively than
they do to Mozart. It’s really our responsibility
as musicians to ensure that new music is
performed.’
All music was new music once, a fact which
Meyer is careful never to forget. ‘I’ve also
played a lot of early music. I’ve played on
original instruments – that’s part of it. You
need to understand how it worked, why
Mozart wrote it like that.’
The restless energy and constant curiosity
is a key to Meyer’s musical personality. She
has music in her head almost every waking
moment, she says. ‘When I was a student,
I used to practise eight to ten hours a day. I
don’t do that any more. Some days I play four
or five hours, but other days less. It’s really
very variable.
‘But you’re always practising in your head. If
you have a concert, or a new piece to learn,
it’s always there. It’s very difficult to switch off.’
Difficult, but obviously not impossible. Meyer is
a self-confessed foodie, and particularly looks
forward to grilled fish dinners in Australia. Her
husband, fellow clarinettist Reiner Wehle,
arrives, and the two are soon avidly discussing
the evening’s menu.
‘It’s very important to have time between
tours, time to regenerate, a place where time
stops,’ she says. ‘If I ever reached the point
where it didn’t matter, then I wouldn’t want to
play music any more.’
Shirley Apthorp © 2010
On behalf of all the children whose lives
will be enriched by our Music Education
Programs we would like to say
“thank you”
to everyone who supported Musica Viva’s
2011 fundraising events.
FURTHER EXPLORATION
Mozart
Brahms
Your one-stop, browsable reference book
for Mozart is The Cambridge Mozart
Encyclopedia (Cambridge University Press,
2007). Roye E. Wates reveals the man behind
the myths in his very readable Mozart: An
Introduction to the Music, the Man, and the
Myths (Amadeus Press, 2010).
Notoriously private, Brahms destroyed many
of the letters which he deemed too personal
or revealing. Nonetheless, a closer look at the
colourful personality of this reluctant writer
can be found in the first complete English
translation of his surviving letters: Johannes
Brahms: Life and Letters (Oxford University
Press, 2001). Always readable, Karl Geiringer
also prised open the door and shone a light
in On Brahms and his Circle: Essays and
Documentary Studies (Harmonie Park Press,
2006).
Take home a live performance of the Clarinet
Quintet with Sabine Meyer and the Hagen
Quartet, recorded for DVD at the Grosser
Saal of the Salzburg Mozarteum in 2000
(Euroarts 2072318).
Schumann
John Worthen’s biography Robert Schumann:
Life and Death of a Musician (Yale University
Press, 2010) offers a fresh look at the
composer, confronting the myth-making and
psychological speculation of the composer’s
decline. Or kill three birds with one stone in
John Daverio’s Crossing Paths: Schubert,
Schumann and Brahms (Oxford University
Press, 2002) which draws connections
between the life and art of three giants of
musical Romanticism.
You know it’s a modern review when the critic
starts describing the Hagen Quartet as the
‘avatar’ of the string quartet. Supreme Beings
indeed, in this pairing of Schumann’s String
Quartet op 41 no 3 and the piano quintet
op 44, with Marc-André Hamelin on piano
(Hyperion 67631).
The Amadeus Quartet’s playing lives on in
a bountiful CD reissue of Brahms’s quintets
and sextets, joined by Karl Leister, clarinet,
and Christoph Eschenbach, piano (Deutsche
Grammophon 419875).
Debussy
Debussy: The Quiet Revolutionary (Amadeus
Press, 2007), with the aid of a full-length CD,
distils the essence, and explores the subtleties
and refinement, of the French master’s music.
The trusty Cambridge Companion to Debussy
(Cambridge University Press, 2003) offers a
broader perspective on the context of the
composer’s life.
Listen to a survey of Debussyan delights,
including the work that started it all – Prelude
to ‘The Afternoon of a Faun’ – and other
wonderful impressionistic landscapes, with
Deutsche Grammophon’s Panorama album
Claude Debussy (469130); the Melos Quartet
gives a vivid, spirited performance of the
String Quartet.
PATRONS
MUSICA VIVA CUSTODIANS
People who have notified us of their intention to leave a bequest to Musica Viva are part of a
very special group of Musica Viva Custodians. A bequest to Musica Viva will have a very long
life, ensuring that we continue to present performances of the highest quality to the widest
range of audiences across Australia, well into the future.
ACT
Geoffrey & Margaret Brennan
The late Ernest Spinner
NSW
The late Charles Berg
Lloyd & Mary Jo Capps
The late Moya Crane
Liz Gee
Suzanne Gleeson
The late Margaret Hedvig
The late Suzanne Meller
Fred Rainey
The late John Robson
Dr David Schwartz
The late Kenneth W Tribe AC
Mary Vallentine AO
Kim Williams AM
Anonymous (5)
QLD
The late Miss A Hartshorn
The late Steven Kinston
SA
The late Ms K Lillemor
Andersen
The late Edith Dubsky
Mrs G Lesley Lynn
Anonymous (1)
TAS
Trevor Noffke
Kim Paterson QC
VIC
Julian Burnside AO QC
The family of the late Paul
Morawetz in his memory
The Anita Morawetz Gift
The late Mrs Catherine Sabey
The late Dr G D Watson
Anonymous (5)
WA
Dr W B Muston
Anonymous (1)
MAJOR GIFTS
Musica Viva pays tribute to the individuals and families making an important contribution
to our activities each year. Every gift is important and ensures Musica Viva remains at the
forefront of artistic excellence and that our award-winning education program continues to
reach students who would otherwise not have access to the inspirational experience of live
music. To make a gift to Musica Viva, please contact Michelle Stanhope at (02) 8394 6672 or
toll-free 1800 255 038 (landlines only).
$50,000 +
$10,000 – $19,999
NSW
Berg Family Foundation
NSW
Justice Jane Mathews AO
John & Jo Strutt
Supervised Investments
Australia Ltd
Ray Wilson OAM
SA
The Fargher Foundation
VIC
Miss Betty Amsden OAM
Arnold Bram AM &
Mary Bram
$30,000 – $49,999
NSW
John Sharpe & Claire
Armstrong
VIC
Anonymous (1)
$20,000 – $29,999
NSW
Anne & Terrey Arcus
Mike & Frederique Katz
Kim Williams AM
$5,000 – $9,999
NSW
Geoff & Vicki Ainsworth
Neil & Sandra Burns
Daryl & Kate Dixon
Irwin Imhof, in memory of
Herta Imhof
Warren & Verity Kinston
John Lamble AO
The Silo Collective
David & Carole Singer
Anonymous (1)
QLD
Ian & Caroline Frazer
Anonymous (1)
SA
The Trevabyn Trust
Anonymous (1)
VIC
Annamila Pty Ltd
Russ & Jacquie Bate
William J Forrest AM
Glenda McNaught
PATRONS
AMADEUS SOCIETY
Building an artistic initiatives fund for Musica Viva.
Sydney
Ruth Magid (Chair) &
Bob Magid
Andrew Andersons AO
Tony & Carol Berg
Jan Bowen
Tom Breen & Rachael Kohn
David & Ida Constable
Reg & Kathie Grinberg
Jennifer Hershon
Jacqueline Huie
Stephen & Michele Johns
Mike & Frederique Katz
Justice Jane Mathews AO
Dr Bela Mezo
Ray Wilson OAM
Anonymous (1)
Melbourne
(President)
& Kate Durham
Brian & Esther Benjamin
Barry Berger & Wendy
Kayler-Thomson
Stephen Boyle
The Honourable Justice
Susan Crennan AC
G R Embleton
Dr Helen Ferguson
Alan Goldberg AO QC &
Rachel Goldberg
Jan Grant
Peter Lovell
Anonymous (1)
KEN TRIBE COMMEMORATIVE FUND
The Ken Tribe Commemorative Fund was established to honour and continue the
extraordinary legacy of the late Kenneth W Tribe AC. All donations to this fund are directed
to the Ken Tribe Fund for Australian Composers.
Denyse Bartimote
Professor Tony Basten
Berg Family Foundation
Christine Bishop
Jillian Broadbent
Martin and Lois Cooper
Nancy Fox & Bruce Arnold
Ann Hanson
Beris Hudson
The Mitchell Family
Colin & Jan Piper
Malcolm & Jeanette Smith
John & Jo Strutt
Evan & Janet Williams
Anonymous (5)
NEWCASTLE CORNERSTONE CAMPAIGN
Donors to the Newcastle Cornerstone Campaign have made a three-year commitment to
secure a National Concert Series of six performances in Newcastle.
Roland & Marion Bannister
Anita & Bob Berghout
Tony & Gay Bookallil
Lyn Bourke
Denise Braggett
Jan Chapman
Stan & Judy Chen
Glen Coulton
Mike & Vicki Diemar
Claus & Luise Diessel
Pamela Dowdell
Margaret Eley & the late
John Yarwood
Mary Ferguson
Helen Gordon
June Hardie
Patricia Harrigan & Dianne
Strachan
Phyllis Harris
Roland & Margie Hicks
Margaret Hughes
Helen & Ray Hyslop
Anna Kaemmerling &
Bryan Havenhand
Drs Robin & Tina Offler
Margie & Kim Ostinga
Max & Olga Reeder
D & J Robson
Dr Arn Sprogis &
Dr Margot Woods
John & Jill Stowell OAM
Brian & Kay Suters
M & R Taylor
Janette Thomson
Luba Totoeva
Patricia & John Turnbull
Dr Marina Vamos
John White
Anonymous (4)
PATRONS
BRISBANE CHAMPIONS
Donors to the Brisbane Champions campaign have made a three-year commitment to
ensure a sixth ensemble can tour to Brisbane as part of the International Concert Series.
John Biggs
Priscilla Brilliant
Dr Betty Byrne Henderson AM
Peter Eardley
Denise & John Elkins
Professor J & Mrs N Gough
A A & A Grant
Lorraine Hemming
Clark Ingram
Hiroko Kikkawa
Mrs J J Lockwood
Peter B Lyons
John Martin
B & D Moore
D W & H F Robertson
Margaret Wren
Anonymous (12)
VIRTUOSI
Musica Viva Australia greatly appreciates the ongoing support of its audiences to help us
make the extraordinary happen. You can join the Virtuosi by making a single contribution, or
by spreading your contribution throughout the year.
This list is correct as at 6 September 2011.
ACT
NSW
$1,000 – $2,499
$2,500 – $4,999
Prof Julia Potter
The Garrett Riggleman Trust
Hilmer Family Foundation
Iven & Sylvia Klineberg
Patricia H Reid Endowment
Pty Ltd
Kristen van Brunschot &
John Holliday
$500 – $999
Dr P & T Barry
Geoffrey & Margaret Brennan,
in memory of Donald &
Susan Youngman
Mrs Lauri Curtis
Robert Goodrick
Claudia Hyles
Ms Margaret Lovell &
Mr Grant Webeck
Helen O’Neil
Miss J Roberton
Ines Ross
Phyllis Somerville
J Spalding
Sue Terry & Len Whyte
Estate B M Warden
Robert & Valerie Tupper
Dr Gwendolyn Woodroofe
Dr P Yorke & Dr A Krumbholz
Anonymous (1)
$1,000 – $2,499
Michael & Margaret Ahrens
Antoinette Albert
Andrew Andersons AO
Sibilla Baer
Ros Baker & the late
David Baker
Dr Gaston & Phyllis Bauer
Mrs Kathrine Becker
Lloyd & Mary Jo Capps
Y & S Center
Sarah & Tony Falzarano
John & Irene Garran
Miss Janette Hamilton
Dorothy Hoddinot AO
Mr Andrew Kaldor &
Ms Renata Kaldor AO
Kevin & Deidre McCann
Robert McDougall
Macquarie Group Foundation
D M & K M Magarey
Nola Nettheim
Caroline Sharpen & Andrew
Parker
Arn Sprogis & Margot Woods
Gordon Stenning
John & Jo Strutt
Mary Vallentine AO
Kay Vernon
John & Flora Weickhardt
Michael & Mary Whelan Trust
Ian Wilcox & Mary Kostakidis
Anonymous (7)
$500 – $999
Mrs Judith Allen
Prof Stephen Angyal OBE &
Helga Angyal
Dr Jennifer Arnold
Robert Arnott
Margaret & James Beattie
Baiba Berzins
Denise Braggett
Mr & Mrs N K Brunsdon
Rosemary Carrick &
Andrew Biro
Michael & Colleen Chesterman
PATRONS
Elizabeth Evatt
Donald & Rosita Gibson
Mathilde Kearny-Kibble
Margaret Lederman
Elfreda & Arthur Marshall
Alexandra Martin in memory
of Lloyd Martin AM
Anne Needham
Prof Robin Offler
Diane Parks
Dr Mark & Mrs Gillian Selikowitz
Andy Serafin
Evan Williams
Elisabeth Wynhausen
Dr A Ziegler
Anonymous (9)
Geoff Clark
Dr Michael Drew
Mrs Cecily Hicks
E H & A Hirsch
M & J Keith
Dr Ruth Marshall
Stephen Milazzo
Tony Seymour
Ann Wilson
Jim & Ann Wilson
R A & G E Woolcock
Anonymous (5)
VIC
$2,500 – $4,999
Brian Goddard
Colin Golvan SC
David & Deborah Lauritz
Joan Loton
Ashton Raggatt McDougall
Ron Merkel QC
Mr Baillieu Myer AC &
Mrs Myer
Sir Gustav Nossal &
Lady Nossal
Megan O’Connor
Robert W Peters
Greg J Reinhardt
Mr & Mrs Jacques Rich
Professor Emeritus
Phillip John Rose AO
Maria Sola & Malcolm
Douglas
Elizabeth Tupper
Anonymous (5)
Anonymous (1)
The Goodman Family
Foundation
John Rickard
Greg Shalit & Miriam Faine
Helen Vorrath
$500 – $999
$1,000 – $2,499
WA
Dr Tee Beng Keng
Anonymous (2)
$2,500 – $4,999
John & Libby Clapp
Rosemary Ellery
Geoffrey Hackett-Jones
Brian L Jones OAM
Skye McGregor
P M Menz
H & I Pollard
John & Ali Sulan
John Sved
Anonymous (4)
In memory of Paul Bruce
Roger & Coll Buckle
Alex & Elizabeth Chernov
Caroline & Robert Clemente
Tom Cordiner
Dr June Danks
Peter Di Sciascio
Lord & Lady Ebury
Peter J Griffin AM &
Terry Linda Swann
Lyndsey Hawkins
Dr Ian Hogarth
Dame Elisabeth Murdoch
AC DBE
Ralph Renard
John Rickard
Murray Sandland
Anonymous (3)
$500 – $999
$500 – $999
D J & E M Bleby
Heather Bonnin OAM
Beverley Brown
Helen Brack
David & Judy Cotterill
Profs S Crowe & J Mills
QLD
$1,000 – $2,499
SA
$2,500 – $4,999
Don & Veronica Aldridge
$1,000 – $2,499
Dr David Cooke
$1,000 – $2,499
Dr W B Muston
Anonymous (1)
$500 – $999
Lynne Burford
Dr Nerida Dilworth AM
Janice Dudley in memory of
Raymond Dudley
Dr Penny Herbert in memory
of Dunstan Herbert
Helen Hollingshead
Mrs Frances Morrell
David Roberts
Elizabeth Syme
Anne Tregonning
Michael & Valerie Wishart
Anonymous (1)
ABOUT MUSICA VIVA
Musica Viva Australia is the world’s largest
entrepreneur of fine ensemble music,
presenting more than 2,400 concerts
each year across Australia and around
the world to the widest possible range of
audiences. Through a broad range of musical
activities the organisation inspires Australian
imagination and creativity.
Musica Viva International Concert Season:
Presenting the world’s finest chamber
musicians to audiences around Australia.
Musica Viva In Schools: Australia’s leading
and most extensive music education program,
presenting more than 2,000 performances
and educational events to more than 320,000
children and their teachers annually.
Musica Viva Café Carnivale: A Sydney
music series presenting a diverse program of
world music in relaxed and intimate venues.
Musica Viva Coffee Concerts Series:
A morning concert series held in Sydney and
Melbourne with diverse and exciting artists in
intimate surrounds.
Musica Viva CountryWide: A regional
touring program presenting public concerts
in partnership with local presenters to more
than 25,000 regional Australians every year.
Khatia Buniatishvili, one of African drum theatre
the artists featured at this
ensemble Karifi performing
year’s Musica Viva Festival. at Café Carnivale.
Musica Viva In Schools
Musica Viva Export: In association with the
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,
Export presents Australia’s finest musicians to
international audiences.
Huntington Estate Music Festival, 23 to
27 November 2011: Australia’s most
renowned and successful chamber music
festival, presented by Huntington Estate in
association with Musica Viva. For information
and tickets, visit huntingtonestate.com.au
Musica Viva Festival: A festival of chamber
music in Sydney, putting the next generation
of Australian performers on the same stages
as the world’s most accomplished musicians.
Presented in association with The Berg
Family Foundation and the Australian Youth
Orchestra. Next Festival: April 2013.
Viva Voices: Music for Life is a research
project investigating how participation in a
singing workshop can benefit the health and
well-being of seniors. Building on a successful
pilot project in Campbelltown NSW, Musica
Viva is expanding the project to three sites in
three states, including Mandurah, WA. Music
for Life is supported by the Australia Council
for the Arts.
MUSICA VIVA CONCERT PARTNERS
SERIES AND TOUR PARTNERS
Perth Concert Series
Newcastle Concert Series
2012 Season Launch
Partner
Presented in association with Newcastle
Conservatorium of Music assisted by the
NSW Government through Arts NSW.
Sabine Meyer & Modigliani String Quartet
Tour Partner
Concerto Copenhagen &
Genevieve Lacey Tour Partner
BUSINESS PARTNERS
Law Firm Partner
Chartered Accountants Partner
NSW & QLD Piano Partner
HOTEL PARTNERS
NATIONAL WINE
PARTNER
NATIONAL
CHOCOLATE
PARTNER
MUSICA VIVA FESTIVAL PARTNERS
Festival Club Partner
Festival Airline Partner
Festival Piano Partner
Festival Parking Partner
Festival Media Partner
MEDIA PARTNERS
Community Support Partner
National Media Partner
GOVERNMENT PARTNERS
Musica Viva is assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the
Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. Musica Viva
is assisted by the NSW Government through Arts NSW.
South Australian Media Partner
MUSICA VIVA EDUCATION PARTNERS
MUSICA VIVA IN SCHOOLS
National
Catholic
Education
ACT
NSW
NT
QLD
Central QLD
SA
TAS
VIC
WA
In memory of
Anita Morawetz
The Marian &
E H Flack Trust
VIVA VOICES
SPECIAL PROJECTS
Taking Music into the 21st Century
Classroom Partner
Family &
Community Services
Ageing, Disability & Home Care
MUSICA VIVA ETIQUETTE
GIVE THIS CONCERT YOUR BEST
PERFORMANCE…
We offer these suggestions in the knowledge that you
want to enjoy every Musica Viva Australia concert to the
full. So please…
ARRIVE IN PLENTY OF TIME. In most venues, staff
will not admit latecomers until a suitable break in the
performance. Musica Viva and venue management
reserve the right of refusing admission.
SWITCH OFF YOUR MOBILE PHONE, PAGER,
ALARM or ALL OTHER ELECTRONIC DEVICES
before the concert commences. Most venues request
that these devices are placed in the Cloak Room and
not brought into the auditorium. Patrons expecting
emergency calls should leave their seat numbers with
the House Manager.
NOTE THE LOCATION OF THE CLOSEST EXIT SIGN.
In the unlikely event of an emergency, please listen
carefully to the staff’s instructions. Venue staff are trained
in emergency procedures and will assist and direct you
should such an occasion arise.
DO NOT TAKE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHS, VIDEO OR
SOUND RECORDINGS OF THE PERFORMANCE.
Most venues strictly prohibit this, and it may also breach
copyright.
COVER YOUR MOUTH WHEN COUGHING IS
UNAVOIDABLE. Other patrons will appreciate your
consideration and health-consciousness when you
muffle unavoidable coughing.
RESERVE APPLAUSE UNTIL THE CONCLUSION OF
EACH WORK. A good rule of thumb is to show your
appreciation at the conclusion of a work – then you can
clap as long and loudly as you like!
DON’T CHAT DURING THE PERFORMANCE. We’re
all used to the informality of listening to the radio or a
CD/DVD at home, but imagine how distracting it could
become if you had hundreds of people at home with
you.
WAIT UNTIL THE PERFORMERS HAVE TAKEN
THEIR FINAL BOW BEFORE LEAVING THE HALL.
It’s difficult to squeeze past other seated patrons, and
you might just miss an unforgettable encore.
Smoking is not permitted in this venue.
Musica Viva Australia reserves the right to alter without
notice programs, performers, dates, times, venues
and/or prices as may become necessary.
…FELLOW PATRONS WILL APPRECIATE
YOUR THOUGHTFULNESS AND
COURTESY
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Managing Director Michael Nebenzahl
Editorial Director Jocelyn Nebenzahl
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Manager—Production Classical Music Alan Ziegler
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Sabine Meyer and Modigliani String Quartet

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