(not) the last night of the proms warwick adeney ... jules massenet (1842-1912) thaïs: meditation...

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THU 19 FEB 7.30PM Brisbane City Hall Conductor Marc Taddei Mezzo Soprano Roxane Hislop Violin Warwick Adeney Trumpet Sarah Butler Brisbane Chorale, directed by Emily Cox WORLDBEAT (NOT) THE LAST NIGHT OF THE PROMS Proudly supported by

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Page 1: (Not) the last Night of the Proms Warwick Adeney ... Jules Massenet (1842-1912) Thaïs: Meditation Violin, Warwick Adeney Elgar ... PROGRAM (Not) the Last Night of the Proms 5

THU 19 FEB7.30PM

Brisbane City Hall

Conductor Marc Taddei Mezzo Soprano Roxane Hislop

Violin Warwick Adeney Trumpet Sarah Butler

Brisbane Chorale, directed by Emily Cox

WORLDBEAT

(Not) the last Night

of the Proms

Proudly supported by

Page 2: (Not) the last Night of the Proms Warwick Adeney ... Jules Massenet (1842-1912) Thaïs: Meditation Violin, Warwick Adeney Elgar ... PROGRAM (Not) the Last Night of the Proms 5

1 PROGRAM (Not) the Last Night of the Proms

to QSO's (Not) the Last Night of the Proms

Tonight’s annual hurrah of all things British sees popular classics, patriotism and of course, Pomp and Circumstance take to the stage.

With a Queensland twist on the English Proms tradition, we aim to surprise you with a truly international letting-down of the musical hair.

Beethoven and friends go all steak-and-kidney too, but the night truly belongs to the English and all those who wish they were.

Sing-a-long, wave your flag and enjoy the fun!

Sophie Galaise CEO, Queensland Symphony Orchestra

Anon. orch. Edward Elgar (1857-1934)God Save the Queen

Jeremiah Clarke (c.1674-1707)The Prince of Denmark’s March (Trumpet Voluntary) Trumpet, Sarah Butler

Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)The Italian Girl in Algiers, Cruda Sorte Mezzo Soprano, Roxane Hislop

Henry WoodFantasy on British Sea Songs

Charles Hubert Parry (1848-1918)Jerusalem Choir, Brisbane Chorale

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837)Trumpet Concerto in E flat: III Rondo Trumpet, Sarah Butler

Georges Bizet (1838-1875) Carmen: Suite No.1 Prelude & Aragonaise,Intermezzo & Les Dragons d'Alcala, Les Toreadors Habanera Seguidilla Mezzo Soprano, Roxane Hislop

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)Il Trovatore, Act II: Anvil Chorus Choir, Brisbane Chorale

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)Egmont Overture

Bizet arr. Ernest Guiraud (1837-1892)Suite No.2 from L’Arlésienne: Farandole

Jules Massenet (1842-1912)Thaïs: Meditation Violin, Warwick Adeney

ElgarNimrod from Enigma Variations

RossiniWilliam Tell: Overture

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)Samson et Dalila, Ma coeur s'ouvre à ta voix Mezzo Soprano, Roxane Hislop

Thomas Arne (1710-1778)Rule, Britannia Mezzo-soprano, Roxane Hislop

ElgarPomp and Circumstance – March No.1

Welcome

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PROGRAM (Not) the Last Night of the Proms 2

Is there a composer who better sums up our notions of Britishness than Elgar? Probably not; however the jingoistic fervour that his music inspires (not to mention the moustachioed, country gent image that persists in the popular consciousness) perhaps belies the more complex nature of the man himself and the breadth of his œuvre. For the composer who is regarded by many as the foremost musical exponent of the heyday of the British Empire was in fact something of an Establishment outsider for much of his earlier life (his later knighthood and appointment as Master of the King’s Music notwithstanding). A Roman Catholic, he was born into a lower-middle-class household, the son of a piano-tuner. Unlike his younger contemporaries such as Vaughan Williams, his influences flowed predominantly from the Austro-German tradition and he had little time for British folk music. Nonetheless, Elgar would spearhead the revival of British music and, generations later, his music still has a profound impact upon audiences worldwide. It is fitting, therefore, that Elgar’s arrangement of God Save the Queen should open this concert celebrating that most beloved of British traditions, the Last Night of the Proms.

Clarke originally composed this piece, for many years wrongly attributed to Purcell, for harpsichord (the ‘Prince of Denmark’ of the title refers to Queen Anne’s consort, Prince George). That it’s a popular modern-day wedding choice is sadly ironic: Clarke’s suicide in 1707 was said to have been the consequence of a failed love-affair. He is buried in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral, where he had been organist.

The most successful composer of his day, Rossini wrote 39 operas before retiring from the stage before the age of 40.

The Italian Girl in Algiers (1813) was one of his first hits. Isabella sets off to be with her beloved, Lindoro, but is shipwrecked and abducted by pirates under the leadership of Mustafa, Bey of Algeria, who covets an Italian girl. She laments her fate in ‘Cruda sorte!

Amor tiranno!’ (Cruel fate! Tyrannous love!), but outwits Mustafa in the end.

Sir Henry Wood, who founded the Proms concert in 1895, composed his Fantasia on British Sea Songs for a 1905 concert commemorating the centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar. He included it in the final concert of the following year’s Proms, establishing the Last Night tradition.

An important name in the renaissance of British music at the turn of the last century, Hubert Parry succeeded Sir George Grove as head of the Royal Conservatory of Music where his students included Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst and Frank Bridge. Steeped in the English choral tradition, he is chiefly remembered for his coronation anthem I was glad and of course, Jerusalem, his 1916 setting of Blake’s famous poem.

Hummel is best known today for his piano works (as a young virtuoso he rivalled Beethoven) but in 1803 he composed this concerto, now his most regularly performed work, to show off the capabilities of Anton Weidinger’s newly developed keyed trumpet, demonstrated in the brilliant Rondo.

Bizet wrote Carmen, his opera about the wild gypsy girl who spurns the smitten Don José in favour of bullfighter Escamillo, in the last year of his life. Sadly, Bizet died during the opera’s initial run, which wasn’t particularly successful, and didn’t live to see it become one of the most frequently performed operas today. Tonight, in addition to the first orchestral suite, we hear two arias based on traditional Spanish dances, the Habanera and the Seguidilla, both sung by the seductress Carmen.

In the midst of this celebration of Britishness, we encounter a composer who was committed to the Risorgimento, the 19th-century movement devoted to Italian unification.

PROGRAM NOTES

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Proving that the English were not alone in being able to compose stirring anthems, Verdi wrote this chorus for Il Trovatore’s gypsies to sing whilst forging metal by their camp fire.

Beethoven wrote his incidental music for a revival of Goethe’s drama in Vienna in 1810. The Egmont Overture foreshadows the fate of Goethe’s real-life 16th-century hero, Lamoral, Count Egmont, who died a hero in the struggle to free the people of the Low Countries from Spanish domination – clearly a subject close to Beethoven’s heart following Napoleon’s occupation of Vienna.

From Carmen’s Seville, Bizet’s music journeys back to his native France for his incidental music to L’Arlésienne, Alphonse Daudet’s 1872 play set in Provence about a peasant boy who commits suicide when he can’t marry the Girl from Arles. The Farandole combines the farandole itself, a Provençal dance, with the traditional air ‘March of the Kings’.

Massenet based the libretto of his opera Thaïs on a novel by Anatole France which follows the conversion of the beautiful courtesan Thaïs by the monk Athanaël. This religious ‘Meditation’ is an orchestral intermezzo, played while Athanaël lies sleeping, and portrays Thaïs’ spiritual conflict.

The work which turned Elgar’s fortunes around, the Enigma Variations were written whilst Elgar eked out a living as a provincial music teacher in his native Malvern region. As he doodled at the piano one evening, he played around with a theme which he varied to depict the personality traits of his friends and family. Variation IX, Nimrod, is a portrait of his friend and publisher A.J. Jaeger (‘Jaeger’ is German for ‘hunter’, and Nimrod is the ‘mighty hunter before the Lord’ of the Book of Genesis). Elgar cryptically stated that the ‘enigma’ was a well-known tune contained within the work, but he never revealed the identity of the theme.

Rossini retired after the premiere of William Tell, his last opera. The second half of the Overture features an idyllic pastoral section in which the cor anglais plays the alphorn melody Ranz des vaches, before the trumpet fanfare abruptly announces the spirited finale, arguably the most famous passage in classical music.

Like his fellow Frenchman Bizet’s opera Carmen, Saint-Saëns’ Samson and Delilah got off to a rocky start due to the notion that such biblical topics were unfit to be portrayed on the stage. However, it was taken up by Liszt, who conducted the premiere in Weimar in 1877, and is now a regular feature of opera houses. In Act II, Delilah uses all her wiles to seduce Samson with her aria ‘Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix’ (My Heart is Open to Your Voice).

When in 1740 Frederick, Prince of Wales commissioned a new musical drama to celebrate his infant daughter’s birthday, he turned not to Handel (London’s foremost composer and creator of Zadok the Priest for the coronation of his father, George II) but to Handel’s rival in the theatre, Thomas Arne. Rule, Britannia! formed part of the finale of Arne’s masque honouring the Anglo-Saxon king Alfred the Great – a subject that fitted perfectly with Frederick’s political ambitions.

Elgar wrote five Pomp and Circumstance marches, but it is the first that is universally known. Written in 1901 during the Boer War, the tune proved so popular at its first London performance that Sir Henry Wood, the Proms’ founding conductor, had to play it three times ‘merely to restore order’. The words of A.C. Benson’s poem Land of Hope and Glory were added to the trio section later, and a secondary British national anthem was born.

Lorraine Neilson Symphony Services International © 2015

PROGRAM NOTES

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Metropolitan Opera Auditions in New York. Roxane was awarded a Green Room Award for best female artist in a supporting role for her performances as Maddalena (Rigoletto) and Olga (Eugene Onegin). With an Operatic repertoire of over 50 roles, she has appeared with every major opera company and symphony orchestra in Australia.

Warwick Adeney Violin

Warwick Adeney was born into a large family of violinists and trained at the Queensland Conservatorium alongside three of his siblings. There he learnt with Dr Anthony Doheny, was a member of the Ambrosian Quartet, and emerged as the Gold Medal graduate of 1984.

Warwick joined the Queensland Theatre Orchestra under Georg Tintner and was appointed Concert Master in 1989.

Over the years Warwick has given many performances of solos works such as Vaughan-Williams' The Lark Ascending, Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and many repeats of the major ballet solos, and continues to enjoy the privileged and challenging life of the orchestra.

Married to Michele, a fellow musician, Warwick is blessed with nine children, all of whom learn a variety of instruments, and the family attends a weekly traditional Latin mass.

The violin Warwick plays is a Venetian instrument from the mid-18th century, possibly by Pietro Guarnerius.

Marc Taddei Conductor

Celebrated for his “magnificent contribution as Music Director” by The Press, lauded as “a real interpreter of boldly romantic inclinations” by the Dominion Post and singled out for his “intensity, commitment and attention to detail” by the Capital Times, conductor Marc Taddei was appointed Music Director of Orchestra Wellington in 2007.

Marc frequently conducts every professional orchestra in New Zealand, and works often with the national ballet and opera companies. He guest conducts the major Australian orchestras, and returns each year to conduct in the United States. Last year he made his mainland Chinese debut in Xiamen and is preparing for a new tour to Asia this year. See marctaddei.com for more details.

Roxane Hislop Mezzo Soprano

Roxane Hislop is a graduate of Sydney University and the NSW Conservatorium of Music. She won the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship, the Inaugural AIMS Scholarship, the Dame Mabel Brooks Scholarship and the Sydney Sun Aria Award, and represented Australia at the National finals of the

BIOGRAPHIES

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Sarah Butler Trumpet

New Zealand born Sarah gained a B.Mus at Auckland University before travelling to study in the UK, where she gained a Masters with distinction in performance at Trinity College of Music, London. Tutors were Mark David, Ian Balmain, Robert Farley and Iaan Wilson.

Whilst in London, Sarah freelanced with the Royal Opera House Orchestra, English National Ballet, London Concert Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony, Scottish Opera, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the New Queens Hall Orchestra.

Sarah was appointed Associate Principal trumpet with the Christchurch Symphony in 2004 and acted as Principal trumpet in 2008 and 2009, then being appointed as Associate Principal trumpet of the Auckland Philharmonia in mid-2009. Sarah is currently Principal Trumpet of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and has also worked with the New Zealand, Melbourne, Sydney and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras.

As well as playing in the QSO Sarah enjoys teaching trumpet at the Griffith Queensland Conservatorium of Music, where she also helps run the brass department.

Brisbane Chorale Music Director Emily Cox

The Brisbane Chorale is a symphonic chorus of over 100 voices with a reputation for outstanding choral performances. Since its formation in 1983, the Brisbane Chorale has made its mark on the choral landscape of Brisbane. The Brisbane Chorale has had the privilege to perform regularly with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and other major orchestras, choirs, performance organisations and festivals. Music Director, Emily Cox, one of Australia’s leading choral musicians, has led the Brisbane Chorale since 2003.

The Brisbane Chorale has performed Australian premieres, commissioned works from Australian composers and recorded works for Move Records and ABC Classics.

For information about the Brisbane Chorale’s concerts and audition process see the website: brisbanechorale.org.au.

BIOGRAPHIES