Back with Beethoven

Sunday 13 September 1.30pm

Sherwood Districts Football Club, 41 Chelmer St East, Chelmer

Conductor – Greta Hunter

Guest violinist – Josie Askey-Doran

Thankyou for joining us to celebrate our return to live music. What an extraordinary year it has been for music, musicians and the arts – we are so excited to be gathering together again.

Program

D’Indy – Sarabande and Minuet, Opus 72

Respighi – Ancient Airs and Dances Suite III

1. Italiana
2. Arie di Corte
3. Siciliana
4. Passacaglia

Saint-Saëns – Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Opus 23

INTERVAL

Beethoven – Symphony no 4 in Bb major, Opus 60

JOIN US AT THE BAR FOR A DRINK AFTER THE PERFORMANCE

Raffle Tickets:

Our usual concert raffle has gone online – please consider buying a ticket HERE for the Raffle That Gives Twice.

During a year when the arts sector has been decimated by the pandemic, your raffle ticket helps raise much needed funds for the ongoing costs of running our orchestra. And the prize supports live music venues that are also needing our support.

Greta Hunter – Conductor

Greta Hunter is a Brisbane based flutist and conductor. Greta holds a Bachelor of Music (first class honours) majoring in Classical Flute Performance from the University of Queensland. As a flutist, Greta held the 2018 position of principal flute with the Queensland Youth Symphony after previously performing as the orchestra’s principal piccolo. Greta has also toured regularly with QYO Chamber Orchestra and in 2017 toured with the Queensland Youth Symphony on its major international tour to China and Germany.

Greta is a young, up and coming conductor with a passion for community music. In 2019 she attended the Melbourne Youth Orchestra’s conductor development program as well as the advanced conducting program at the Australian Choral Conductors Education and Training (ACCET) Summer School. Greta has also attended the Australian Conducting Academy in Tasmania and the Zlin International Conducting Masterclass in the Czech Republic. In 2018 Greta was invited to guest conduct the Queensland Youth Symphony in its 2018 Strings Sensations concert.

Greta is currently the musical director of four community ensembles around Brisbane. She is also the flute specialist tutor at Westside Christian College

Josie Askey-Doran -Violin Soloist

We are delighted to be performing with Josie Askey-Doran, our violin soloist for the Saint Saëns Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (Op 23). Josie is passionate about her business as a violinist, educator and emerging community arts presenter, and equally passionate in her playing. (You can follow her on Facebook here.) Currently completing a Bachelor of Music (Honours) thesis on music performance in regional communities, she is particularly interested in developing accessible arts experiences. Josie toured to Far North Queensland with the Collage Ensemble in 2018, played with the Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra for Opera at Jimbour, and toured with the Queensland Youth Orchestra to China last September. The Saint Saëns has become of staple of the violin repertoire; it combines a lyrical theme, wild leaps and runs and a triple-stopping cadenza. Come hear Josie’s violin artistry.

Sarabande and Minuet Opus 72

Vincent D’Indy (1851- 1931)

Born in Paris into a family of Catholic aristocrats, d’Indy could trace his ancestry back to Henri IV. Over his long life, he produced 105 scores and was a major influence on the generation of French musicians who preceded Impressionism.

D’Indy was one of those 19th-century characters who seemed to be everywhere. In 1873, he traveled to Germany and met both Liszt and Brahms. In 1875, he was the prompter for the premiere of Bizet’s Carmen. In 1884, he was the choirmaster for a production of Wagner’s Lohengrin, and he attended and was greatly influenced by the first production of Wagner’s Ring cycle at Bayreuth in 1876. He, along with organist Alexander Guilmant and conductor Charles Bordes, founded the Schola Cantorum in 1894. While music was racing toward 20th-century modernism, d’Indy through his Schola Cantorum cast a backward glance, emphasizing the study of Gregorian chant, Renaissance polyphony and works of the late Baroque and early Classical periods.

He entered the Paris Conservatory in 1872 and became a student of composer-organist César Franck (1822-1890). Germanic in his musical outlook, an admirer of Wagner and an ardent worshiper of Beethoven, Franck inspired plenty of French musicians, especially d’Indy.

D’Indy had a long career, teaching at the Schola Cantorum until his death in 1931. Among his many students were Isaac Albéniz, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud and for a few months in 1920, Cole (“Anything Goes”) Porter.

Sarabande and Minuet Opus 72 is a transcription by D’Indy himself of two movements from one his earlier works – Suite dans le style ancien for trumpet, two flutes and string quartet (1886). Sarabande and Minuet is scored for wind quintet and piano.

Program notes by Jack Zimmerman from Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Colleen Rowe.

Ancient Airs and Dances Suite III

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)

Respighi was born into a musical family with a father who played the violin and piano and a mother who a singer. His father taught him to play violin and piano at young age and by the time he was 20, he had passed his exams on the violin, viola, and composition to receive his diploma from the Liceo Musicale in Bologna. Respighi served as Composition Professor (1913 until his death) and also Director of the Conservatorio di Santa Cecelia (1924–26). Respighi also served as Principal Violist for the Russian Imperial Theater in St. Petersburg during its season of Italian Opera in 1900. During his time there, he studied composition for five months with Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. An orchestral appointment in Berlin is thought to have led to a period of composition study with Max Bruch. After that season, he returned to Bologna where his principal activity, until 1908, was first violinist in the Mugellini Quintet, a touring quintet founded by composer Bruno Mugellini.

Respighi’s compositions began to get noticed in the early 20th century. In 1917, he rose to international attention when the first of his “Roman Triptych” poems, Fountains of Rome, was played in Rome, the United States, and several other European countries. As a composer, Respighi dips his toe into the modernism of the time, only to draw back to a more conservative style, then delving into modernism, and finally retreating again to his comfort zone. Respighi’s music reflects his surroundings using impressions made by his native Italy and also trips that he made outside Italy. Respighi was also a scholar of Italian music of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, publishing scholarly editions of the music of Monteverdi, Vivaldi, and Marcello. This work influenced his set of three Ancient Aires and Dances

Ancient Aires and Dances, Suite III (1932) is the third of three sets of Ancient Aires and Dances that were inspired by Respighi’s interest in the Italian music of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Suite III differs from the previous two in that it is written for strings only and has a melancholy mood. The music is based on the baroque guitar pieces of Ludovico Roncalli and the lute pieces by Santino Garsi di Parma. In composing the piece, Respighi uses the dance forms of the Italian Renaissance, 1575–1625, with a glance toward the modern era of music from 1917–1932. The resulting music captures the grace, elegance, and brilliance of these old forms and melodies with a modern colors and shaping. It turns out that these new stylings of old music are among Respighi’s most popular works.

Program notes by Montgomery Philharmonic

Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Opus 23

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)

Like Mozart, Camille Saint-Saëns was a child prodigy who started composing at the age of three. At age 11 he debuted as a concert pianist, as an encore offering to play any Beethoven sonata the audience could name! Spanish violinist Pablo de Sarasate, another child prodigy, had no hesitation at the age of 15 in asking Saint-Saëns to write a violin concerto for him, which he did. Four years later, Saint-Saëns wrote a second work for Sarasate, the virtuosic Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, designed to show off Sarasate’s dazzling technique. It remained in Sarasate’s standard repertoire until his death in 1908, by which time he had recorded several commercial recordings. Nevertheless, he was outlived by Saint-Saëns, who survived World War I.

The reflective introduction is in the form of an extended opera-like recitative. The syncopated theme that opens the Rondo has a distinctively Spanish flavour, reflecting the work’s dedicatee. A lyrical theme contrasts with the wild leaps and runs of the more exuberant passages, before a triple-stopping cadenza leads to a frenetically brilliant coda.

Program notes by Maroondah Symphony Orchestra.

Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major, Opus 60
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

When modern listeners think of Ludwig van Beethoven’s nine symphonies, there are undoubtedly those that come to mind more readily than others. Indeed, the Fifth’s unmistakable short-short-short-long motif and the Ninth’s stirring “Ode to Joy” chorus are some of the most recognizable melodies ever penned. Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, on the other hand, is the least known and least performed of his symphonies. The Fourth’s placement and overall tone contributes to its relative obscurity: sandwiched between the monumental Third and the powerful Fifth, the Fourth is generally lightweight and cheerful, lacking the same dramatic punch and extramusical associations as its neighbors. Robert Schumann aptly called the work “a slender Greek maiden between two Norse giants.” For all its lack of comparative appreciation, Beethoven’s Fourth is inarguably a masterwork. The compositional language is both assuredly and appealingly Beethovenian, including the driving forward momentum, brilliant development of small musical ideas, and unusual yet striking harmonic relationships that are all hallmarks of Beethoven’s style.

Composed over about one month in the summer of 1806, Symphony No. 4 was the result of a commission from Count Franz von Oppersdorff, a relative of Beethoven’s patron. While a visitor in the Count’s home, Beethoven heard his own Second Symphony performed by Oppersdorff’s court orchestra. The Count was such a fan of this work that he soon paid Beethoven to compose one specifically for him (this perhaps explains the similarity in style between the two symphonies). The work premiered at a private concert in Vienna in March of 1807 and was dedicated to Count Oppersdorff.

Beethoven’s Fourth spans four movements and has a performance time of about 35 minutes. The work begins with a slow introduction featuring unsettled dissonance and heavy ambiguity. The first movement proper acts as light bursting forth from this shadowy introduction; while firmly controlled, its forward motion is buoyant, rousing, and energetic. The second movement Adagio is an expressive rondo, the tender mood of its main theme underscored with constant motion in the accompaniment. A scherzo with a five-part structure (rather than the traditional three parts) follows: the first section, heard three times, is bounding and dance-like, while the slower second section, played twice, lilts along in the winds and strings. A dazzling perpetual motion finale then takes over, strong despite its lightness, and races headlong toward the stirring conclusion of this small but mighty symphony.

Program notes by Laney Boyd, Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra.

Indooroopilly Chamber Orchestra

Conductor – Greta Hunter

Guest Violin Soloist – Josie Asked-Doran

Master of Ceremonies – Mandy Adams

Flute

Kymberley Jones

Julie Stanton

Oboe

Clint Fox

Clarinet

Benjamin Campbell

Colleen Rowe

Robert Teakle

Bassoon

Andre Oberleuter

Milly Yip

Horn

David Innes

John MacGinley

Piano

Gary Hunt

Timpani and Percussion

Janine Kesting