EnergyAustralia Master Series

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ABOUT THE CONCERT

They say the beginning is a very good place to start. With Mahler that’s true, and as we set off with this 20-something composer there are twin strands to be discovered – symphonies and songs. The Songs of a Wayfarer follow the fortunes of a roaming apprentice, bereft and alone. It’s a melancholy subject, but in Mahler’s hands it’s beautifully poignant. On the other hand, his first symphony, composed around the same time, catches him in a good mood and – for Mahler! – a concise frame of mind.

Here is the emerging Mahler sound in music that sings and revels in youthful humour. There’s irony too. This is the symphony that famously turns “Frère Jacques” into a funeral march: the forest animals following a dead hunter. Blumine is a literal flowering of musical beauty, once a part of the symphony and recovered from the cutting room floor. From one appealing moment to the next, this is the perfect concert to discover the genuine Mahler voice.

R STRAUSS Don Juan
MAHLER Blumine
MAHLER Songs of a Wayfarer
MAHLER Symphony No.1

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Markus Eiche baritone

Pre-concert talk by David Garrett in the Northern Foyer, 45 minutes before each performance.

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – R STRAUSS Don Juan: two highlights
Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 480 04411
Track 2 – MAHLER Songs of a Wayfarer: Ging heut’ morgen übers Feld (As I walked this morning through the field)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone soloist
Track 3 – MAHLER Symphony No.1: 2nd movement
Track 4 – MAHLER Symphony No.1: finale
Mahler tracks: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rafael Kubelik
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 449 735-2
 
Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

Currently available from iTunes: Mahler 1 and Wayfarer; Don Juan

LISTEN TO SAMPLES

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Where will the music take your emotions? It doesn’t matter when it sounds as magnificent as this. Mozart’s sparkling overture to The Marriage of Figaro barely hints at the catharsis of the opera’s conclusion. But after that it’s a concert of farewells – to life, to love and times gone by. Richard Strauss’s music for Der Rosenkavalier embodies a spirit of waltzing nostalgia and its opulent beauty is distilled in this orchestral suite.

Mahler’s Song of the Earth is an elegy for voices and orchestra, the work of a man obsessed with his own mortality. Its imagery places a spiritual stamp on the physical world – wine, love, the moon and the turning of the seasons – and ends with the farewell that is forever. The music is unbearably sad and tinged with longing, but this is Mahler and never has the urge to cry felt so satisfying.

MOZART
The Marriage of Figaro: Overture
R STRAUSS Der Rosenkavalier: Suite
MAHLER The Song of the Earth

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Lilli Paasikivi mezzo-soprano
Stuart Skelton tenor

PRE-CONCERT TALKS

Free pre-concert talk by Genevieve Langat 7.15pm in the Northern Foyer.

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – MOZART The Marriage of Figaro: Overture
Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta
DECCA 476 9907
Track 2 – R STRAUSS Der Rosenkavalier: introduction to the concert suite
Vienna Philharmonic conducted by André Previn
DEUTSCHE GRAMMPHON 437 790-2
Track 3 – MAHLER The Song of the Earth: Das Trinklied von Jammer das Erde (The Drinking Song of Earth’s Sorrow)
Track 4 – MAHLER The Song of the Earth: Der Abschied (The Farewell)
Janet Baker, mezzo-soprano, and James King, tenor, with the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink
PHILIPS 468 182-2

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

Currently available from iTunes:
Strauss
Mahler

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Sometimes words fail, and that’s where this concert begins, with instrumental moments from Strauss’s musical “conversation piece”, Capriccio – a prelude for just six players and a glimpse of moonlight in a delicate intermezzo. The heavenly image is sustained in the clarinet concerto, with the mellow purity of the instrument that Mozart taught to sing.

We’d guess that Mahler’s Fourth Symphony is the ‘first’ Mahler symphony for many music-lovers – it’s the shortest and the most candid, and you can’t help but be won over by its singing optimism and dancing innocence. Even the “dance of death” for a devilish violin doesn’t spoil its beauty. Then in its charming finale, soprano Emma Matthews unveils a child’s vision of heaven – “hung with violins!”

R STRAUSS Capriccio: Prelude & Moonlight Music
MOZART Clarinet Concerto
MAHLER Symphony No.4

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Emma Matthews soprano
Dimitri Ashkenazy clarinet

Pre-concert talk by Yvonne Frindle at 7.15pm in the Northern Foyer.

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – R STRAUSS Capriccio: Moonlight Music
Vienna Philharmonic conducted by André Previn
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 437 7902
Tracks 2 and 3 – MOZART Clarinet Concerto
Gervase de Peyer, clarinet, with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peter Maag
DECCA 476 7404
Track 4 – MAHLER Symphony No.4: 1st movement
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rafael Kubelik

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music

Currently available for purchase:
Strauss
Mozart
Mahler

Some music takes no prisoners. The composer’s creative vision can be so clear and compelling that no allowance is made for performer or listener. Should we be surprised if this is the kind of music that ends up a masterpiece? We bring Beethoven and Stravinsky together with two pieces that shocked their first listeners even as they won admirers.

Renaud Capuçon is the intrepid soloist in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto – symphonic in scope and challenging at every turn. Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring makes for a pulsing, overwhelming finale: a classic for us today, but still revealing its power to amaze.

TCHAIKOVSKY The Snow Maiden: Dance of the Comedians
BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto
STRAVINSKY The Rite of Spring

Kristjan Järvi conductor
Renaud Capuçon violin

Pre-concert talk by Raff Wilson at 7.15pm in the Northern Foyer.

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A Count goes hunting on a Sunday. A Musician (ok, it’s Berlioz) poisons himself with opium. According to the music, they both come to grief: one is chased by demons to eternity, the other is overwhelmed by dreams of witches and the scaffold. It seems wrong to enjoy their fates so much, but who can resist it when these wild stories have been given such exhilarating and evocative music?

Ravel’s piano concerto is just as thrilling – it begins with the crack of a whip and ends in a jazz-inflected whirlwind of notes. Fantastique!

FRANCK The Accursed Huntsman
RAVEL Piano Concerto in G
BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique

Pinchas Steinberg conductor
Louis Lortie piano

Pre-concert talk by Yvonne Frindle at 7.15pm in the Northern Foyer.

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – FRANCK The Accursed Huntsman
L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Ernest Ansermet
DECCA 480 0052
Track 2 – RAVEL Piano Concerto in G: 3rd movement (Presto)
Alicia de Larrocha, piano, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conduced by Lawrence Foster
DECCA 476 235-1
Track 3 – BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique: At the Ball
Track 4 – BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique: March to the Scaffold
Hungarian Radio and Television Orchestra conducted by Charles Munch
PHILIPS 476 7962

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.