ICO 2024 Season – Sundays @ 1pm

Sunday 8 September 1.00pm @ Sherwood State School, cnr Oxley and Sherwood Rds, Sherwood

Welcome to our fourth ICO Sundays @ 1pm concert in 2024 (the third concert here at Sherwood State School), where we are thrilled to present more of our thoughtfully chosen repertoire.

The orchestra will begin with the Egmont Overture by Ludwig van Beethoven, a powerful and dramatic piece that captures the essence of heroism and struggle. Next, be mesmerised by the Violin Concerto No. 22 in A minor by Giovanni Battista Viotti, performed by our talented soloist, Edison Richard. This captivating concerto showcases technical brilliance and lyrical beauty. Finally, enjoy a classical gem with Luigi Cherubini’s Symphony in D major, a work full of elegance and spirited energy that bridges the classical and early romantic periods.

Program

Ludwig van Beethoven – Egmont Overture

Giovanni Battista Viotti – Violin Concerto No. 22 in A minor

INTERVAL

Luigi Cherubini – Symphony in D major

Greta Hunter – Conductor

Greta Hunter is a Brisbane based conductor and flute specialist. She holds a Bachelor of Music (BMus(hons)) from the University of Queensland, majoring in flute performance, and currently studies Orchestral Conducting with the Cardiff International Academy of Conducting and Mark Shapiro (The Julliard School). 

Greta holds the position of conductor with the Indooroopilly Chamber Orchestra (ICO), where she connects players to great orchestral works most often from the 18th – 20th centuries. With ICO, Greta creates valuable opportunities for outstanding young musicians to rehearse and perform concertos and solo works with a full orchestra. She is equally at home with choral music and is currently the musical director of Songshine Choir. Greta also works with school and community youth ensembles as well as being regularly invited to guest conduct other instrumental and vocal ensembles around Brisbane.

Greta is a flute specialist tutor at St Peter’s Lutheran College (Indooroopilly) and Westside Christian College. She is passionate about developing technique and musicianship and incorporates a multidisciplinary approach to her teaching, where she utilises and combines flute pedagogy with vocal pedagogy. Greta incorporates this approach to develop technique and musicianship for flutists and choristers alike and has seen significant positive benefits across both disciplines.

Greta is driven by the underlying philosophy that everyone deserves to experience meaningful music making. Through her work as both a conductor and flute specialist tutor, Greta guides people to explore the possibilities of expression through music and ultimately to engage with music in a deeper and more meaningful way.

Edison Richard

Edison Richard, violinist of 8 years, first started at the age of 9, attending the school music program at the Conservatorium at South Bank for primary and secondary students, including the State Ensemble Honours Program and Australian Ensemble Honours Program.

From here, the violin snowballed into a passion more than a hobby, with Edison pursuing private tuition. Edison has attended National Music Camp and the Young Symphonists with the Australian Youth Orchestra. He has had the privilege of being the former Principal 2nd violinist of the Gold Coast Youth Symphony, which consolidated his love for music.

His musical journey extends globally with tours to Singapore, Austria, and Germany alongside the Queensland Youth Symphony, where he is currently playing. Edison plans on refining his craft at Griffith Conservatorium while maintaining a presence with the Queensland Youth Symphony and Australian Youth Orchestra.

His favourite artists are the Orava Quartet, and his favourite piece is the Sibelius Violin Concerto.

Program Notes

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Egmont Overture

Heroism was close to Beethoven’s own personality, and it was a major concern of his times. It is not surprising then, that in his comparatively rare forays into music for the theatre Beethoven proved most attracted to protagonists who dared much against repressive forces.

Egmont would certainly be a case in point. In 1809 Beethoven was commissioned to compose incidental for the belated Vienna premiere of the play by Goethe. This was Goethe’s free interpretation of the titular Count Egmont’s 16th-century struggle for Dutch liberty against the autocratic imperial rule of Spain. Egmont is imprisoned and sentenced to death, and when Klärchen, his mistress, fails to free him, she commits suicide. Before his own death, Egmont delivers a rousing speech and his execution becomes a victorious martyrdom in a fight against oppression.

Beethoven’s incidental music begins with a powerful, strikingly original overture that summarises the course of the drama, from its ominous slow introduction, suggesting the oppressive tread of Spain with the rhythm of the sarabande, to the manic transformation of tragedy into triumph in a brilliant coda, which Beethoven echoed at the end of the play as a Victory Symphony. 

Program notes: https://www.laphil.com/musicdb/pieces/321/egmont-overture

Giovanni Battista Viotti (1755–1824) 

Violin Concerto No. 22 in A minor

Viotti was foremost a violinist and composer for his instrument, but an opportunistic streak led him into other areas and away from his native Italy. His early violin teachers included Gaetano Pugnani, with whom he undertook an extensive concert tour to Switzerland, Germany, Poland and Russia (1780–81), such was his early brilliance. In Paris, he tired of the virtuoso way of life despite enthusiastic acclaim, and ‘escaped’ into the service of Marie-Antoinette at Versailles. His administrative skills soon surfaced. He created a new opera house and supported several younger composers by mounting their operas, but in 1792 the Revolution forced him to abandon everything and flee to London. There he resumed his virtuoso existence, becoming prominent in Haydn’s concert series. Trumped-up political charges drove him to Germany in 1798 but about two years later he was back in London, this time to sell wine! An unhappy period in Paris (1819–23) brought him close to despair and he died soon after returning to London.

For all his patchy career, his position as the leading violinist of his time is undisputed. He is regarded as the founder of modern violin playing. Following Tartini, his skill was unsurpassed until the appearance of Paganini, and his numerous compositions naturally concentrate upon his own instrument. He wrote twenty-nine violin concertos between about 1782 and 1805. No 22 in Giazotto’s list is dated 1792–7.

A lengthy orchestral tutti creates an atmosphere of sombre expectation which is only marginally dispelled by the soloist’s contemplative entry. Here Viotti, the master violinist-composer, shows his paces in a well-constructed movement of contrasting moods in which display is neatly juxtaposed with thematic strength. The Adagio is a placid and beautiful interlude, and the Agitato assai finale possesses an intriguing subdued urgency. Even Brahms came to admire this Viotti Concerto.

Program notes: https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W1529_66840

Luigi Cherubini (1760–1842) 

Symphony in D major

The Italian composer Cherubini came to occupy a dominant position in French musical life. He was employed at the Conservatoire in Paris on its foundation and from 1822 was director of the institution, retaining this position until the year of his death. His works include compositions for the stage, for the church and for political purposes, a requirement of the turbulent revolutionary years.

It is often forgotten that Cherubini, best remembered today for his Requiem and opera Médée, was held in the highest regard by his contemporaries, including Beethoven who considered him to be the greatest living composer of all. With its echoes of Schubert and Rossini, and a brilliant closing movement, Cherubini’s only symphony is a highly inventive and beautifully proportioned work. 

Program notes: https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.557908

Indooroopilly Chamber Orchestra

Flute

Zoe Arthy

Kymberley Jones

Clarinet

Denise Hobson

Annalie Roux

Bassoon

Sean Butler

Hayden Mears

Horn

Nicole Blackett

Jace Graieg

David Innes

Trumpet

Nicole Blackett

Timpani and Percussion

Janine Kesting