The Forgotten Symphony | Albany
WASO REGIONAL TOUR
Friday 30 August, 7.30pm & Saturday 31 August 2024, 2.00pm
Albany Entertainment Centre
West Australian Symphony Orchestra respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and Elders of Country throughout Western Australia, and the Menang Noongar people on whose lands we work and share music.
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The Forgotten Symphony
Claude DEBUSSY Prélude à ‘L’après-midi d’un faune’ (10 mins)
Samuel BARBER Violin Concerto (25 mins)
Allegro
Andante
Presto in moto perpetuo
Interval (25 mins)
César FRANCK Symphony in D minor (41 mins)
Lento – Allegro non troppo
Allegretto
Allegro non troppo
Asher Fisch conductor
Riley Skevington violin
Asher Fisch appears courtesy of Wesfarmers Arts. WASO’s Regional Tour is supported by Principal Partner Wesfarmers Arts and MM Electrical Merchandising.
Wesfarmers Arts Pre-concert Talk
Find out more about the music in the concert with WASO’s Artistic Planning Manager, Alan Tyrrell. The Pre-concert talk will take place in the Albany Entertainment Centre foyer at 7pm (Friday) and 1.30pm (Saturday).
Wesfarmers Arts Post-concert Talk
Join WASO’s Principal Conductor, Asher Fisch and Associate Concertmaster, Riley Skevington for a post-concert interview. Hosted by WASO’s Executive Manager of Artistic Planning, Evan Kennea, this Q+A will take place in the main auditorium directly following the performances.
WASO On Stage
About the Artists
Asher Fisch
Principal
Conductor & Artistic Adviser
A renowned conductor in both the operatic and symphonic worlds, Asher Fisch is especially celebrated for his interpretative command of core German and Italian repertoire of the Romantic and post-Romantic era. He conducts a wide variety of repertoire from Gluck to contemporary works by living composers. Asher is now the longest serving Principal Conductor of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO), commencing his tenure in 2014. His former posts include Principal Guest Conductor of the Seattle Opera (2007- 2013), Music Director of the New Israeli Opera (1998-2008), and Music Director of the Wiener Volksoper (1995-2000).
Born in Israel, Asher began his conducting career as Daniel Barenboim’s assistant and Kappellmeister at the Berlin Staatsoper. He has built his versatile repertoire at the major opera houses such as the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, and Semperoper Dresden. Fisch has conducted at leading American symphony orchestras including those of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, and Philadelphia. In Europe he has appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and the Orchestre National de France, among others.
In addition to his concerts with WASO, Asher’s 2024 season includes Aribert Reimann’s Lear at the Teatro Real de Madrid, Carmen at the Wiener Staatsoper, and Dialogues des Carmélites at the Israeli Opera. Guest engagements with orchestras include a return to the Queensland Symphony in Brisbane. His recent seasons featured Lohengrin and La forza del destino at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre and concerts with the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Queensland Symphony, Sydney Symphony, and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
Asher’s award-winning recordings include Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and tenor Stuart Skelton’s first solo album “Shining Knight” - all recorded with WASO - and Ravel’s L’heure espagnole with the Munich Radio Orchestra. In 2016, the complete Brahms symphonies with Asher Fisch and WASO were released on ABC Classic to great acclaim. His recording of Wagner’s Ring Cycle with the Seattle Opera was released in 2014. His first Ring Cycle recording, with the State Opera of South Australia, won ten Helpmann Awards, including best opera and best music direction. Asher Fisch is an accomplished pianist and has released a solo recording of Wagner piano transcriptions for the Melba label.
Asher Fisch appears courtesy of Wesfarmers Arts.
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About the Artists
Riley Skevington
Violin
Riley currently holds the position of Associate Concertmaster with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.
After completing a Bachelor of Arts (majoring in Music and Specialist Music Studies) at the University of Western Australia, Riley gained a scholarship at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) in 2014. Studying with Dr. Robin Wilson, Riley went on to win the Kendall National Violin Competition, the Australian Youth Classical Music Competition, and was a semi-finalist in both the ABC Young Performers Award and the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition.After ANAM, Riley earned a position in the prestigious Karajan Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker, performing regularly with the Orchestra from 2018-2021. Riley’s time in Berlin saw him tour extensively with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and perform Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at the Philarmonie accompanied by the Karajan Academy. During this time, he worked closely with conductors such as Kirill Petrenko, Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Barenboim, the late Mariss Jansons, Zubin Mehta, Andris Nelsons and Reinhard Goebel.
Riley has performed in a number of National and International festivals including; the BBC Proms, the Menuhin Festival, Musikfest and MaerzMusik in Berlin, and most recently in summer festivals in Salzburg, Baden-Baden, Amsterdam and China.
A proponent of new music, Riley has worked extensively with a number of notable composers, giving world premiere performances of chamber works by Unsuk Chin, Enno Poppe, Péter Eötvös, Paul Stanhope and Emma Greenhill.
In demand as a soloist, Riley has given concerto performances with the Karajan Academy Orchestra, the ANAM Orchestra, the Geelong and Fremantle Symphony Orchestras, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra with a performance of the Brahms Violin Concerto.
Complementary to his role with WASO, Riley is Head of Strings at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), enjoying a varied workload of teaching, directing and lecturing. Riley currently performs on a violin made by and generously on loan from the German Luthier Stefan-Peter Greiner.
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About the Music
Claude Debussy
(1862-1918)
Prélude à ‘L’après-midi d’un faune’
Stéphane Mallarmé’s 1876 eclogue L’après-midi d’un faune is a monument of symbolist poetry, reflecting in its sumptuous but fragmentary language the erotic fantasies of a drowsy faun – a mythical half-man, half-goat – on a hot, languid, Sicilian afternoon. Running like a thread through the imagery of fruit and flowers and naked nymphs are references to music, specifically to the syrinx, or flute fashioned from reeds by the god Pan. One such reference, to the syrinx’s ‘sonorous, airy, monotonous line’, would become the kernel of Debussy’s musical rendering of the poem. Inviting Mallarmé to hear the work in 1894, he described ‘the arabesque which…I believe to have been dictated by the flute of your faun’.
The first, repeated phrase of the solo flute arabesque with which the piece begins has rightly been described as a founding moment in modern music. Its chromatic line traces and retraces the ambiguous interval of the tritone: it is in no clearly discernible key, as is shown by the varied ways in which it is harmonised on its subsequent reappearances. The second half of the melody provides more ‘conventional’ motifs that are taken up by the orchestra.
Mallarmé’s poem rhymes, but otherwise avoids traditional forms or a narrative line; similarly, Debussy’s piece avoids the goal-directed development and tonal architecture that informs 19th-century symphonism. Musical events, like the vivid splashes of colour that first answer the flute, are there for the immediate pleasure they give; climaxes are approached by simple repetition of motifs; the most extended melody is a richly scored, Massenet-like tune at the work’s midpoint, accompanied by rocking ostinatos.
The faun’s dream is overcome by sleep and the ‘proud silence of noon’, and the piece ends with the flute fading to nothingness.
Gordon Kerry © 2013
First performance (Revised version):
22 December 1894. Gustave Doret, conductor.
First WASO performance:
23-25 July 1949. Henry Krips, conductor.
Most recent WASO performance:
13-14 March 2020. Ludovic Morlot, conductor.
Instrumentation:
three flutes, two each of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, one English horn, four horns, two harps, two crotales and strings.
Glossary
Arabesque – a musical decoration.
Ostinato – a brief fragment or phrase which is repeated persistently through a section of music.
Tritone – a particular interval, also called a diminished fifth or augmented fourth, which has an unstable and perhaps disturbing feel. In the Middle Ages it was nicknamed ‘the Devil in music’.
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About the Music
Samuel Barber
(1910-1981)
Violin Concerto (1939)
Allegro
Andante
Presto in moto perpetuo
Hot on the heels of his highly successful Adagio for Strings (1938), Samuel Barber received his first commission for a Violin Concerto from the manufacturer of Naptha Soap – who also happened to be on the board of trustees of the Curtis Institute of Music, Barber’s Alma Mater. Samuel Fels wanted the concerto for his adopted son Iso Briselli, a child prodigy, and had offered Barber the impressive fee of $1,000, half of which Barber received in advance. This was a considerable sum for Barber, who at the time was living with Gian Carlo Menotti in a small rented apartment so oppressive that they dubbed it ‘the Water Tank’.
Work began on the concerto in Sils Maria, Switzerland, but Briselli’s response to the first two movements was not sympathetic. Briselli was unimpressed by the heart-wrenching lyricism of these movements, calling them ‘too simple and not brilliant enough’ for a concerto.
In response, Barber planned a finale with ample opportunities for virtuosic display. Its composition was interrupted by the impending invasion of Poland by the Nazis. During his hasty departure from Europe, Barber scribbled the words ‘increasing war anxiety...giving up fall
in Paris. Closing frontiers of neutral countries dangerous for G.C., phone call about German-Russian pact – difficulty with French visa for G.C., Americans warned to leave Paris.’
Born of such dramatic beginnings, it is little wonder that the third movement was destined to be the subject of controversy! Having declared the first two movements too easy, Briselli now cried petulantly that the final movement was too difficult and demanded the commission fee back. As it happened, all of the fee had already been spent in Europe. Years later Briselli made an about-face on his earlier comments, claiming instead that the finale was not ‘too difficult’ but too
‘lightweight’ in comparison with the first two movements.
Barber himself had his own reservations about the final movement, in particular about how accurately a performer could realise his intended rhythmic execution. Before the first performances, Barber let it be known that the dotted notes should be held for their entire length to achieve the necessary rhythmic impetus for the movement.
A demonstration was hurriedly arranged to prove the concerto was playable and to help Barber save face. A fine young violinist, Herbert Baumel, a student of Léa Luboshutz, was relaxing in the Curtis Institute common room when Ralph Berkowitz strode in and thrust some untitled manuscript in his hands. He
was told only that he had two hours to learn the music, that he must dress for a performance and that the piece should be performed ‘very fast’. Berkowitz accompanied Baumel in a performance that prompted ovations and proved that the concerto was playable at any tempo. The decision was that a vindicated Barber should keep his commission fee and that Briselli must relinquish his right to premiere the work.
While it clearly contrasts with the lyric content of the first two movements, the finale movement adds a great sense of balance and of energy to the work as a whole. In his own program note, Barber describes the first two movements as having ‘more the character of a sonata than a concerto form’, and concludes,
‘the last movement, a perpetual motion, exploits the more brilliant and virtuosic characteristics of the violin.’
Music critic Virgil Thomson’s praise of the Violin Concerto is somewhat coloured by the general prejudice of the time against what modernists and neo-classicists alike have considered as Barber’s retrogressive ‘romanticism’. And indeed, the lyricism and long solo violin introduction recalls Mendelssohn. Thompson writes,
‘Although the concerto cannot fail to charm by its graceful lyrical plenitude and its complete absence of tawdry swank... the only reason Barber gets away with elementary musical methods is that his heart is pure.’
But Thomson has put his finger on the real charm of this concerto and indeed of Barber’s music in general. It is Barber’s sincerity and simplicity that has enabled it to speak to so many people, and its strong melodic lines have an insistent appeal to the listener’s emotions. The Violin Concerto is no exception and
is brimming with memorable melodic material.
© Kylie Burtland 1997.
First performance:
February 1941. Albert Spalding, violin.
First WASO performance:
18 October 1966 (Australian premiere). Thomas Mayer, conductor. Vernon Hanly, violin.
Most recent WASO performance:
4-5 April 2014. Benjamin Northey, conductor. Karen Gomyo, violin.
Instrumentation:
two each of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets; timpani, snare drum, piano and strings.
Glossary
Sonata – nowadays, a work (usually in three or four movements, of which the first is usually in sonata form) for solo instrument, usually with piano accompaniment (unless the solo instrument is the piano). In the 16th and 17th centuries, the term (which literally means ‘sounded’ or ‘played’) referred more generally to various types of instrumental music.
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About the Music
César Franck
(1822-1890)
Symphony in D minor
Lento – Allegro non troppo
Allegretto
Allegro non troppo
In France in the 1860s and 1870s, composers seemed compelled to respond to the challenges of the ‘New German School’ of Wagner and Liszt, but, for the most part, were equally compelled not to ‘sound German’. Perhaps the most original response was contained in the small but distinct output of the Belgian-born composer César Franck.
The D minor Symphony is one of a handful of works from the last years of Franck’s life on which his reputation rests. The personality this music reveals is one influenced by Beethoven’s concentration of expression, Wagner’s orchestral texture and harmonic colours, and the time-scale of Wagner’s music dramas. It is also influenced by many years in the organ loft, and by the freedom from formal sonata procedures Liszt had advocated in his symphonic poems, in particular Liszt’s method of structural development which he called ‘transformation of themes’, in which a work’s overall structure is determined by the major points of change to its principal themes.
Franck welds these potentially contradictory elements into something unique and big-hearted in this symphony. Like Beethoven, his principal motifs are often short, and he is able to transform these germ-like ideas with power and success. Like Beethoven, too, he has no time for elaborate introductions – in each movement of this symphony he plunges almost straight into the argument at hand – and his codas do not meander.
But the results are not at all Beethovenian, because Franck’s sense of scale is so spacious. He is inclined to parade his good ideas in emphatic review so that, for example, the slow introduction to the symphony becomes a kind of motto theme for the first movement as it progresses. And his final, elaborate recapitulation in the finale is not the work of a man in a hurry. This epic style of utterance was also a result of his re-examination of traditional formal procedures, by which process he took Beethoven’s notion of ‘the symphony as personal testament’ further into the heart of Romantic feeling.
In effect, this symphony’s dark first three notes are the basis of all that follows. They are the first movement’s main, anchoring theme, and they establish the movement of the semitone as a governing factor in the whole work. Indeed, the notion of thematic inter-relatedness is more closely observed in this work than in any of Liszt’s symphonic poems. It is one of the symphony’s most innovative characteristics, and it delighted some
of Franck’s contemporaries. The young Claude Debussy’s response was: ‘[The symphony] is amazing. I should prefer a less four-square structure. But what smart ideas!’
One of the smartest manifestations of the work’s concentration of thought is the combination of slow movement and scherzo into one movement. As Donald Tovey wrote of the Allegretto, ‘It has the allure of a slow minuet; but by using the harmony of the cor anglais tune and – simplest of all means – halving its note values, Franck creates a contrasting, quicker set of themes that eventually coalesce with the stately tune that opened the movement.’
Franck presents his ideas with such skill that it is easy to miss the ease with which he moves between keys. Before the first 30 bars of the symphony are through, Franck has shifted from his home key of D minor through F sharp minor to E flat. When the work was new, this was another aspect of it that offended conservative taste. His melodic ideas, as already noted, are not so freewheeling, and are often dependent on the movement upwards or downwards of the semitone, a characteristic which, in the words of French music specialist Martin Cooper, ‘suggests the action of the organist’s fingers or feet executing a sliding semi-tonal descent on the keys or pedals’.
Franck’s symphony was influential: the symphonies of Dukas and Chausson are based closely on its shape and variations of mood, and the language of Debussy’s Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun was clearly informed by the lusciousness of Franck’s juicier moments. But after World War I, when the European avant-garde had no taste for expressions of Romantic aspiration, the work receded from view. It only established its modern reputation gradually, from the 1940s, and was restored to favour with the help of the long-playing record.
Abridged from Phillip Sametz © 1993
First performance: 17 February 1889. Jules Garcin, conductor.
First WASO performance: 27 May 1944. Ernest J. Roberts, conductor.
Most recent WASO performance: 2-3 September 2011. Asher Fisch, conductor.
Instrumentation: two each of flutes and oboes, one English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, two cornets, three trombones, one tuba, timpani, harp and strings.
Glossary
Coda – a concluding section added to the basic structure of a piece or movement to emphasise the sense of finality.
Minuet – a dance in triple time, which became popular in France in the 17th and 18th centuries. The term is now used to refer to a dance-like piece or movement in moderately fast triple time. Recapitulation – a return to the opening material of a piece or a movement.
Scherzo – literally, a joke; the term generally refers to a movement in a fast, light triple time which may involve whimsical, startling or playful elements.
Semitone – a very narrow interval. The first notes of Beethoven’s Für Elise are a semitone apart. Sonata – nowadays, a work (usually in three or four movements, of which the first is usually in sonata form) for solo instrument, usually with piano accompaniment (unless the solo instrument is the piano). In the 16th and 17th centuries, the term (which literally means ‘sounded’ or ‘played’) referred more generally to various types of instrumental music.
Symphonic poem – a programmatic work for orchestra, usually in a single movement.
About WASO
Engage | Excite | Experience | Educate
From the centre of Perth to the furthest corners of the state, we have provided the soundtrack to life in WA since 1928.
As the State Orchestra, Perth’s first and finest, WASO is the largest employer of performing artists in Western Australia and reaches two million people with musical experiences each year on stage, in our community, and online.
From concert halls to classrooms, hospitals to aged care, we bring joy, inspire learning, and nurture participation in our community, because everybody deserves the opportunity to experience live music. Every year, through community and leading industry partnerships, we engage a new generation of young and emerging artists to help secure a bright future for music in Australia.
We celebrate our rich classical music heritage with great artists from all over the world and commission and perform new repertoire to renew and expand it.
The Orchestra collaborates widely with major arts companies and independent artists, performing opera to ballet, movies to musicals, jazz to rock. We champion the diversity of music in all its forms, with a team of talented and passionate people who create unforgettable experiences for all West Australians to enjoy.
Asher Fisch is Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser of our Orchestra and we are proud to call Perth Concert Hall home.
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WASO in the Community
Side-by-Side Symphony
In June, WASO presented Side-by-Side Symphony (previously named Rusty Orchestra), an opportunity for community musicians to experience rehearsing and performing in a professional concert at Perth Concert Hall alongside the Orchestra. 41 musicians were selected, joining us from all over WA including three participants from Albany - Andrew Marsden on tuba, Kirsty Sutherland on violin and Margaret Crossen on double bass.
The repertoire included excerpts from Prokoviev’s Romeo and Juliet, Argentum by Dani Howard, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, and John Williams’ Harry’s Wonderous World from the Harry Potter movies. The audience was guided through the concert, gaining insights into both the music they were hearing and how our Side-by-Side Orchestra had prepared for the concert.
Participants in this year’s Side-by-Side Symphony came from all walks of life and included teachers, doctors and even a music therapist. WASO violinist Kate Sullivan even convinced her mother to dust off her flute and take part in the program.
The supportive atmosphere and opportunity for challenge was a highlight of the program for our participants, with others mentioning that it presented the perfect opportunity for them to introduce their friends and family to classical music. One participant said “The most valuable part of the experience was receiving feedback from the WASO musicians. Their interpretation and guidance was so valuable and I took some great tips away that I can incorporate into my own playing and practice.”
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Philanthropy
Join Our Symphony of Giving
The transformative nature of music is yet to be matched. It can heal, it can unite, and it can inspire. It can do this and so much more all without a single word being uttered. It’s unsurprising then that it’s woven into the fabric of our celebrations and stories, providing the backdrop for countless moments in our lives.
That is why WASO is committed to empowering, enriching, and elevating the lives of all West Australians through the universal language of music. The donations we receive enable your Orchestra to continue to inspire and connect our community through its beauty.
Join us in shaping our performances by contributing to the concerts you love so that together we may continue to change lives through music.
For more information or to pledge your support, please call the Philanthropy team on (08) 9326 0016 or visit our website.
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To share in our vision and discuss the many opportunities extended through corporate partnerships please contact Corporate Development on 08 9326 0020.
