ICO Sundays 2022

Sunday 19th June 1.00pm @ Sherwood State School, cnr Oxley and Sherwood Rds, Sherwood

Conductor – Greta Hunter

Clarinet Soloist – Josephine Daniel

Join us for dances from the court and the sea. Relax with memories of childhood and rejoice with a wonderful tour of clarinet musicianship.

Program

Peter Warlock – Capriol Suite. Composition Year 1926

Carl Maria von Weber – Clarinet Concerto No. 2 in E flat major Opus 74

INTERVAL 

Gabriel Pierne – Album pour mes Petits Amis Opus 14, arranged for wind ensemble by Ray Thompson

Gustav Holst – St Paul’s Suite No.2 Opus 29. Composition Year 1912-13

Greta Hunter – Conductor

Greta Hunter is a flutist, music educator, conductor, and musical director of three community ensembles in Brisbane.

Greta holds a Bachelor of Music with first class honours majoring in Classical Flute Performance from the University of Queensland.  She held the 2018 position of principal flute with the Queensland Youth Symphony (QYS) after previously performing as the orchestra’s principal piccolo.  Greta has toured regularly with the QYO Chamber Orchestra and in 2017 performed with the QYS on its major international tour to China and Germany.  She is the flute specialist tutor at the Westside Christian College, Brisbane.

Greta is an experienced conductor with a passion for community music.  In 2019 she attended the Melbourne Youth Orchestra’s conductor development program, and 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, and was invited to guest conduct the QYS in its 2018 Strings Sensations concert.

Greta is the musical director and conductor of the Indooroopilly Chamber Orchestra, Songshine Choir and Queensland Korean Junior Strings.

Josephine Daniel – clarinet

Josephine Daniel is a second year clarinettist at the Queensland Conservatorium, under the tutelage of renowned clarinettist and composer, Paul Dean. She is a recipient of the University’s Sir Samuel Griffith Scholarship for Academic Excellence.

Commencing clarinet tuition in Year 5 at All Hallows’ School with Kate Jones, Josephine went on to win the 2020 Queensland Clarinet and Saxophone Society Competition in Year 12. She was accepted into the Australian Youth Orchestra National Music Camp (Sydney Conservatorium) and awarded the Enoggera Eisteddfod Woodwind Bursary the same year. She is a member of the Queensland Youth Orchestra (QYO) and has played as Principal clarinet for the Queensland Youth Symphony, Queensland Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra and Concertmaster for QYO Wind Ensemble and Australian Honours Ensemble.

Josephine revels in the excitement and energy of performing. A highlight has been Mahler’s Symphony No.2 ‘Resurrection’ under the baton of QYS maestro Simon Hewitt which received a standing ovation and was named as one of QPAC’s nights of the year in 2021. Other thrilling concerts have included Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Scheherazade’ with members of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Beethoven’s 7th symphony and Emperor Concerto alongside Ensemble Q with pianist Alex Raineri. Josephine was honoured to play for His Excellency the Hon. Paul de Jersey at Government House last year.

It has been her privilege to attend masterclasses and lessons with esteemed clarinettists throughout Australia: Jonathan Craven, Philip Arkinstall (Melbourne Symphony), Frank Celata (Sydney Symphony), Brian Catchlove (Queensland Symphony) and Paul Champion (Orchestra Victora).

When Josephine is not at one of her late night practice sessions at the Con (followed by a McFlurry from McDonalds) she enjoys playing piano, teaching and swimming.

Today’s performance is Josephine’s first concerto and she sincerely thanks the Indooroopilly Chamber Orchestra for the opportunity to play.

Program Notes

Peter Warlock (1894-1930)

Capriol Suite (arr. N. P. Thomas for chamber orchestra)

The Capriol Suite is a set of dances in the renaissance style. It was based on tunes in a manual of Renaissance dances by the French priest Jehan Tabourot (1515 -1595). The treatment of the source material is very free and the work can be regarded as an original composition rather than an arrangement. It is made up from of six contrasting movements – Basse Danse, Pavane, Tordion, Bransles, Pieds en l’air, and Mattachins – each in a different dance form. 

The composer, Peter Warlock was the pen name of Philip Arnold Heseltine, born into a wealthy London family in 1894. He was educated at Eton College and Oxford University where he read for a degree in classics. On graduating he resisted family pressure to work in the stock exchange choosing rather to frequent an artistic circle of friends that included the novelist D H Lawrence. 

From an early age he was fascinated by the work of Fredrick Delius whom he met in 1911. The two became close friends, and Delius supported and mentored him throughout his short life.  Warlock never settled into a conventional career. He had some short lived appointments, one as a music critic for the Daily Mail. He did however engage in serious musical scholarship, editing, transcribing and arranging early music manuscripts, and writing a major study of the music of Delius. 

His first major compositions, mainly songs, began to appear in 1917, at which time he had moved to Dublin to avoid possible conscription. It was at this time that he adopted the pseudonym Warlock, possibly in parody of his interest in the occult. In 1922 he completed his first widely acknowledged masterpiece the song cycle named the Curlew. His period of creativity continued only for a few years culminating in the composition of his most famous work – the Capriol Suite – in 1925. The original piano duet version of the work was a great success and was quickly followed by the version for string orchestra (1926) and a version for full orchestra (1928).

Program Notes by: Portobello Orchestra http://www.theportobelloorchestra.co.uk/ProgrammeNotes/WarlockCapriol.php

Carl Maria von Weber (1786 – 1826)

Clarinet Concerto no. 2 in Eb major Op 74

Weber was a child prodigy, his huge hands contributing to his piano virtuosity. He wrote his first opera when he was fourteen, and became music director of the Breslau town theatre when he was seventeen. He acquired a great deal of stage experience as he accompanied his father on theatrical tours throughout Germany. His interest in the clarinet began in 1811, when he met Heinrich Barmann, the greatest clarinetist in Germany. He wrote a Concerto for Barmann, which met with immediate success and spawned a series of commissions for the clarinet and other wind instruments. 

The Clarinet Concerto no. 2 in Eb major Op 74 was first performed to frenetic applause in 1811.  It is described as the more symphonic of his two concerti for clarinet, however there is a strikingly operatic character to it, especially in the second movement, the Romance. In the second half of that movement, the clarinet could be mistaken for a vocal solo, with the orchestra playing short chords in the manner of recitativo secco, as used by Mozart in The Marriage of Figaro. This is a reflection of Weber’s love of classical form in general, and that of Mozart in particular.

The final movement, the Polonaise, makes spectacular demands on the soloist. Leaving aside problems of embouchure and breath control, ignoring the need to hit the right keys, just imagine hitting any keys that fast for that long, and you have a small idea of the difficulty of that piece.

Program Notes by: Manchester Symphony Orchestra http://www.manchestersymphonyorchestra.com/concerts/048/048-3.html

Gabriel Pierné (1863 – 1937)

Album Pour Mes Petits Amis Op. 14

In 1887 Gabriel Pierné composed six easy pieces, Pastorale; Farandole; La Veillée de l’ange gardien; Petite gavotte; Chanson d’autrefois; and Marche des petits soldats de plomb.  He dedicated the odd numbers to the three daughters of his publisher Alphonse Leduc, and the even numbers to the children of his friend, the painter Luc-Olivier Merson, creator of the mosaic in the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre. 

Although the Album pour mes petits amis evokes the atmosphere and games of the world of childhood, it is also aimed at learning musicians.  It does not contain any great technical difficulties and avoids key signatures full of accidentals, however Pierné employs a broad palette of colours, using all the possibilities afforded by key and mode. 

Several pieces feature archaistic effects such as the monodic writing and open fifths in the Pastorale, a pedal note and melody reminiscent of an ancient instrument in the Petite Gavotte. There is a tinge of nostalgia in La Veillée de l’ange gardien, with its four-part choral writing to be played “Andantino religioso”, or in the delicate Chanson d’autrefois. These subtle shadows melt away, however, in the cheerful staccatos of the Farandole, while the fanfares and drumrolls of the Marche des petits soldats de plomb provide the collection with a strong, bright ending. 

Pierné orchestrated this classical suite himself for a variety of small ensembles.

Program Notes by: Bru Zane, Centre de Musique Romantique Française http://www.bruzanemediabase.com/eng/Works/Album-pour-mes-petits-amis-op.-14-Gabriel-Pierne

Theodore Gustav Holst (1874 – 1934)

Host – St. Paul’s Suite Op. 29 no.2

Best known for his extraordinary orchestral suite The Planets, British composer Gustav Holst composed an impressive opus of high quality works ranging from choral pieces to suites for military band.  His Romantic writing style drew on many influences, but his later music increasingly gravitated to folk song.  His life’s work, however, was teaching music whereas composing occurred in his spare time.  One of his longest held posts was at the St. Paul’s School for Girls in Hammersmith, England and his utterly charming St. Paul’s Suite was written between 1912 and 1913 for his student orchestra there.  Immediately, we hear Holst’s love of British folk song.

The first movement begins with a robust “jig” in alternating 6/8 and 9/8 time. Holst then introduces a contrasting theme, then skilfully develops and blends the two. The “ostinato,” marked presto, opens with a figure played by the second violins which continues throughout the movement. Then a solo viola introduces a principal theme. In the “Intermezzo” a solo violin introduces the theme over pizzicato chords, and the solo viola joins the violin in a duet.  After an animated section the original melody is again heard, now performed by a quartet of soloists. Finally, the folksong “Dargason” is introduced very softly, and the cellos enter playing the beautiful “Greensleeves”.  The two folksongs are played together to end the suite.

Program Notes by: Max Derrickson https://www.musicprogramnotes.com/holst-st-pauls-suite-for-string-orchestra-op-29-no-2/

Jane Erb http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/works/holst/stpaul.php

Indooroopilly Chamber Orchestra

Flute

Eliza Cordery

Midori Ryan

Julie Stanton

Taylor Whateley

Clarinet

Ryan Evans

Colleen Rowe

Bassoon

Kirsten Wilson

Horn

John MacGinley

Bob Townsend

Piano

Gary Hunt

Timpani and Percussion

Janine Kesting