Edward Gardner Conducts Brahms
MACA SYMPHONIC SERIES
Friday 11 & Saturday 12 July 2025, 7.30pm
Winthrop Hall, UWA
West Australian Symphony Orchestra respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and Elders of Country throughout Western Australia, and the Whadjuk Noongar people on whose lands we work and share music.
How to use your Digital Program
Edward Gardner Conducts Brahms
Franz SCHUBERT Symphony No.8 Unfinished (24 mins)
Allegro moderato
Andante con moto
Benjamin BRITTEN Les Illuminations (23 mins)
I Fanfare
II. Villes
IIIa. Phrase
IIIb. Antique
IV. Royauté
V. Marine
VI. Interlude
VII. Being Beauteous
VIII. Parade
IX. Départ
Interval (25 mins)
Johannes BRAHMS Symphony No.1 (45 mins)
Un poco sostenuto – Allegro
Andante sostenuto
Un poco allegretto e grazioso
Adagio – Più andante – Allegro non troppo, ma con brio
Edward Gardner conductor
Samantha Clarke soprano
Wesfarmers Arts Digital Pre-concert Talk
Listen to your digital pre-concert talk below. For more information on this week's speaker, Philip Everall, see About the Speaker.
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This performance is recorded for broadcast on Thursday 14 August, 1pm (AWST) on ABC Classic. Date subject to change. For further details visit abc.net.au/classic.
Wesfarmers Arts Digital Pre-concert Talk
WASO On Stage
About the Artists
Edward Gardner
Conductor
Edward Gardner is Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) and Music Director of The Norwegian Opera and Ballet. He additionally serves as Honorary Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, following his tenure as Chief Conductor from 2015 to 2024.
Edward opens his inaugural season as Music Director of The Norwegian Opera and Ballet with concert performances of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman and Mahler’s Symphony No.2 Resurrection. He will then conduct two fully staged operas; Verdi’s La Traviata and Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, following earlier productions of Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle, Zemlinsky’s A Florentine Tragedy and Verdi’s Un ballo in Maschera.
During his fourth season with the LPO, Edward will conduct nine concerts at the Royal Festival Hall, as well as a US tour culminating at Carnegie Hall, and in major European cities including Vienna, Frankfurt and Hamburg. Highlights of their London season include Strauss’ Alpine Symphony, Ravel and Rachmaninov double bills and several world premieres, closing with Mahler’s Symphony No.8 Symphony of a Thousand.
In demand as a guest conductor, this season Edward appears with Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Frankfurt Radio, Dallas Symphony, New World Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Debuts in recent seasons include New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, San Francisco Symphony, Staatskapelle Berlin Orchestra, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, and Wiener Symphoniker; with re-invitations to Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Montreal Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano. In the UK, he has had longstanding collaborations with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, where he was Principal Guest Conductor from 2010 to 2016, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, whom he has conducted at both the First and Last Night of the BBC Proms.
In Spring 2025, Edward returns to the Royal Opera House to conduct the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Festen, having made his debut with a new production of Káťa Kabanová, and he returns to Bayerische Staatsoper in June for Rusalka, following his debut with Peter Grimes in 2022 and Verdi’s Otello in 2023. Music Director of English National Opera for eight years (2007 to 2015), Edward also built a strong relationship with The Metropolitan Opera with productions of The Damnation of Faust, Carmen, Don Giovanni, Der Rosenkavalier and Werther. Elsewhere, he has conducted at La Scala, Chicago Lyric Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Opéra National de Paris.
Edward has an extensive discography with Chandos. His many recordings with the Bergen Philharmonic feature Brahms, Sibelius, Nielsen, Grieg, Bartok, Schoenberg and Britten, and their recording of Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass received a Grammy nomination. His recording of Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage for LPO Live received the Gramophone Opera Award 2023 and their most recent release is Berlioz’ The Damnation of Faust.
A passionate supporter of young talent, Edward founded the Hallé Youth Orchestra in 2002 and regularly conducts the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He has a close relationship with the Juilliard School of Music, and with the Royal Academy of Music who appointed him their inaugural Sir Charles Mackerras Conducting Chair in 2014.
Born in Gloucester in 1974, Edward was educated at Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music and gained early recognition as Assistant Conductor of The Hallé and Music Director of Glyndebourne Touring Opera. His many accolades include the Royal Philharmonic Society Conductor of the Year Award (2008), an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera (2009) and an OBE for Services to Music in the Queen’s Birthday Honours (2012).
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About the Artists
Samantha Clarke
Soprano
Clarke is the winner of the 2019 Guildhall Gold Medal and prize winner in the 2019 Grange International Festival Singing Competition. Samantha studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, as a Sir John Fisher Foundation and Independent Opera Scholar, under the tutelage of Mary Plazas. She is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama Opera School as a Baroness de Turckheim Scholar, Help Musicians, Tait Memorial and Countess of Munster Trust Scholar and studied with Yvonne Kenny.
In addition to the 2019 Guildhall Gold Medal, Samantha is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Leverhulme Royal Northern College of Music Award, the Dame Eva Turner Award and the Michael and Joyce Kennedy Award for the singing of Strauss.
Her operatic roles include: Violetta (La Traviata), Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte), Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Countess (Le Nozze di Figaro), Anne Trulove (The Rake’s Progress), The Governess (The Turn of the Screw) and Theodora.
Recent and future engagements include Countess (Le nozze di Figaro) at Garsington, Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte) with the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy in Japan, Grange Festival and Opera Queensland, Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare) and Theodora for Pinchgut Opera, Woglinde (Das Rheingold), Marzelline (Fidelio) and Mendelssohn’s (Midsummer Night’s Dream) with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Simone Young, Violetta (La Traviata) with Opera Australia and West Australian Opera, a US tour with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, Messiah and War Requiem with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven Symphony No.9 in Tasmania, and Les Illuminations with Western Australia Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Edward Gardner.
Samantha features on the Resonus’ Samuel Barber: The Complete Songs recording with accompanist Dylan Perez.
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About the Music
Franz Schubert
(1797-1828)
Symphony No.8 in B minor, D759 Unfinished
Allegro moderato
Andante con moto
Why is Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony so much admired by musicians and their public alike? Because of its lyrical outpouring of one melody after another? Because romantically-minded people are attracted to the idea of the incomplete masterpiece? Or because of the sentimental legend that Schubert was unable to finish his symphony through illness and lack of public appreciation?
The latter idea can be banished by noting that Schubert composed the music in 1822. Still to come, in 1825, was the grandly affirmative Great C major Symphony, and in the remaining six years of his life Schubert could have returned to the Unfinished and completed it. Instead, two movements survive, and an incomplete sketch of a third. There have been attempts to finish the symphony, however musicologists these days agree that it should be left as it stands.
The two movements which constitute the Unfinished Symphony seem, on first hearing, almost like two slow movements, one after another. Schubert’s musical thinking is extraordinarily broad, its essential feature being a new kind of long-range harmonic movement: amazing modulations, but all making sense in the whole.
Schubert presented his work to the Styrian Musical Society of Graz, in gratitude for an honorary diploma. He entrusted it to Anselm Hüttenbrenner, a member of the Society, who never delivered it. In 1860, 32 years after Schubert’s death, the score was rescued from Hüttenbrenner, who had kept it in a drawer stuffed full of papers. The first performance was given by the orchestra of the Society of the Friends of Music in Vienna in 1865.
Adapted from a note by David Garrett © 1998
First performance: 17 December 1865, Vienna. Johann von Herbeck conducting.
Most recent performance: 11-12 March 2022. Asher Fisch, conductor.
Instrumentation: two each of flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons; two horns, two trumpets, three trombones; timpani and strings.
Glossary
Modulation – a change of key.
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About the Music
Benjamin Britten
(1913-1976)
Les Illuminations for high voice and string orchestra, Op.18
I. Fanfare
II. Villes
IIIa. Phrase
IIIb. Antique
IV. Royauté
V. Marine
VI. Interlude
VII. Being Beauteous
VIII. Parade
IX. Départ
One night in 1938 Britten and Swiss soprano Sophie Wyss were returning to London by train after giving a recital. Wyss remembers how excited Britten was: ‘he had just read the most wonderful poetry by Rimbaud and was so eager to set it to music.’ By March 1939 Britten had set two of the poems, Being Beauteous and Marine, which Wyss premiered in Birmingham to great acclaim a month later. The remainder of the cycle was composed between then and October 1939, during which time Britten and singer Peter Pears were living in North America.
The two musicians’ trip to Canada and the USA has been retrospectively explained as the response of two pacifists to the inevitable outbreak of war in Europe, but the truth would appear rather more complex than that. Britten and Pears had for some time intended to give a series of recitals in Canada, and Britten’s friend and mentor, the poet W.H. Auden, was by this time residing in the USA. Moreover, Humphrey Carpenter’s biography of the composer suggests that their extended stay was influenced as much by complications in Britten’s love-life at home as by global politics. The British Government’s declaration of war in September 1939, however, made the decision to stay in North America an almost foregone conclusion.
That a composer as fastidious as Britten should be so excited by a poet who cultivated the ‘derangement of all the senses’ seems odd at first. Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) wrote all of his influential poetry as a teenager, while scandalising French society by having a tumultuous, drug-fuelled love affair with the poet Paul Verlaine, 10 years his senior and, until Rimbaud’s arrival, happily married. Having survived addiction, homelessness and a gunshot wound inflicted by Verlaine, Rimbaud gave up literature at the age of 21 and spent many of his remaining 16 years as a trader and gun-runner in East Africa. Britten had set Verlaine’s poetry in the extraordinary Four French Songs composed when he was 15, but it was through Auden that he discovered the work of the younger Rimbaud in 1938.
Britten’s obsession with the corruption of innocence – a much-discussed aspect of many of his works – and his powerfully ambivalent attitude to sexuality found resonance in Rimbaud’s poetry, with what Michael Kennedy describes as its ‘dark and tormented sexual images’. (As commentator Christopher Palmer has noted, French composers, ‘deeply conscious of the “difficulty” of [Rimbaud’s] work, have for the most part studiously avoided him’.) Paradoxically, though, Britten’s music is far from dark and tormented. Much of the melodic material is derived from the common major chord, as heard in the fanfares of the first section, and the main melody of Antique. His writing for the voice – and despite Britten’s later stated preference for Peter Pears’ interpretation, it is a work which suits the soprano better – has a crystalline clarity, and the scoring for string orchestra has numerous touches of brilliance. In his introduction to the vocal score, writer Edward Sackville-West noted that ‘it is always a picture, not an idea, that is evoked, and Britten’s settings have rightly the sharp outlines and vivid colours of a missal.’
First complete performance: 30 January 1940, London. Boyd Neel, conductor. Sophie Wyss, soloist.
First WASO performance: 21 August 1973. Tibor Paul, conductor. Gerald English, soloist.
Most recent performance: 21-22 July 1995. Paul Daniel, conductor. Joan Rodgers, soloist.
Instrumentation: strings only.
Les Illuminations
Text & Translation: I. Fanfare
Les Illuminations
Text & Translation: II. Villes
Les Illuminations
Text & Translation: IIIa. Phrase & IIIb. Antique
Les Illuminations
Text & Translation: IV. Royauté
Les Illuminations
Text & Translation: V. Marine
Les Illuminations
Text & Translation: VI. Interlude
Les Illuminations
Text & Translation: VII. Being Beauteous
Les Illuminations
Text & Translation: VIII. Parade
Les Illuminations
Text & Translation: IX. Départ
About the Music
Johannes Brahms
(1833-1897)
Symphony No.1 in C minor, Op.68
Un poco sostenuto – Allegro
Andante sostenuto
Un poco allegretto e grazioso
Adagio – Più andante – Allegro non troppo, ma con brio
The First Symphony was a long time coming, largely as a result of Brahms’ paralysing stage-fright when contemplating genres in which the ‘giants’ – especially Beethoven – had produced their masterpieces. That is not to say that Brahms had not wanted to compose symphonies, and in the early 1850s was persuaded by Robert and Clara Schumann to turn a D minor sonata for two pianos into such a work; the results have not survived. It was at this time, though, that he began making sketches for what would, eventually, become the first movement of the First Symphony.
In 1862, Clara Schumann was surprised to receive a package from Brahms containing ‘the first movement of a symphony’. She wrote to Joseph Joachim that it was ‘rather strong … but full of wonderful beauties’ and noted that ‘the themes are treated with a mastery that is becoming more and more characteristic of him’. Despite the enthusiasm of such colleagues, however, the movement (at this stage it was only the Allegro section) remained an unfinished torso for well over a decade. The Symphony was only completed and first performed in 1876 – the same year as the first production of the completed Ring cycle.
Its impact was such that conductor Hans von Bülow only half-jokingly referred to it as Beethoven’s Tenth. It is certainly Beethovenian in scale, and follows the blueprint of such works as Beethoven’s Third, Fifth and Ninth Symphonies in tracing an epic journey from a state of turbulent conflict to one of triumphant resolution.
Clara Schumann may have found the ideas in the 1862 sketch ‘strong’, but they were immeasurably strengthened when Brahms added the overwhelming slow introduction where, over the implacable pounding of the timpani, the full orchestra sounds a harmony that threatens to come apart under the force of its internal tension. That tension is not resolved by a contrasting chirpy Allegro: the remainder of the movement continues to depict a compelling, but abstract, drama of musical processes in Brahms’ now fully-formed orchestral sound.
The Andante shows an equally Brahmsian, if completely different, sound world. After the confused alarms of the previous movement, the rhetoric is much more subdued, and the scoring lighter, allowing for brief, sylvan wind solos and passages of lush string writing. But the retreat from the Romantic Sturm und Drang of the previous movement is by no means complete, and the music is occasionally taken over in an impassioned outburst. The closing section of the movement, though, is quietly gleaming, with a violin solo and the soft wind chords with which Brahms often concludes a piece.
Brahms scholar Karl Geiringer writes that that the Allegretto (not a conventional scherzo) ‘seems to smile through its tears’, though it too has moments of frank emotionalism. Conductor Hermann Levi felt that the inner movements were serenade-like, but as such they provide respite between the two, titanic outer movements.
Following the Beethovenian model meant that Brahms had to create a finale that balanced if not outweighed the opening movement. Brahms’ solution was essentially that of Beethoven in the finale of the Ninth Symphony – though not, of course, using voices: both begin with seemingly unrelated passages that return to a state of uncertainty and move through various musical fields before discovering the thematic centre of the piece. Brahms begins with a sombre Adagio introduction that, like the first movement’s, features harmony that moves almost painfully from chord to nearby chord. This gives rise to fragmentary, more troubled music, which in turn is interrupted by a long horn melody; this tune had personal significance for Brahms, in that he wrote it out, with some home-made verse, on a card sent to Clara Schumann when they were estranged. It is joined by the trombones (making their first appearance in the work), that suggests a sudden view of a spacious landscape. Only now does Brahms bring in his theme, a piece of pure and simple diatonicism.
Brahms, who never suffered fools, would snap at people who noted the similarity of the theme to Beethoven’s ‘Freude’ tune: ‘Any jackass can see that!’ And of course it may be a Beethovenian tune but its scoring, and the development to which it is subjected, are purely and masterfully Brahmsian.
© Gordon Kerry 2015First performance: 4 November 1876, Karlsruhe. Otto Dessoff, conductor.
First WASO performance: 11 August 1944. Ernest J. Roberts, conductor.
Most recent performance: 20-21 August 2021. Asher Fisch, conductor.
Instrumentation: two each of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons and contrabassoon; four horns, two trumpets, three trombones; timpani and strings.
Glossary
Diatonicism – music which conforms to a key, without discordant notes.
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.
Sturm und Drang –A movement in German letters, reflected in the other arts, that reached its highpoint in the 1770s. It is most easily defined by its artistic aims: to frighten, to stun, to overcome with emotion.
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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 stages 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.
Asher Fisch is Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser of our Orchestra. 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.
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About the Speaker
Dr Philip Everall
Your Wesfarmers Arts Digital Pre-concert Talk for Edward Gardner Conducts Brahms is delivered by Dr Philip Everall.
Philip Everall is a bass clarinettist from Perth, Western Australia who has performed in venues such as the Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, and Clancy’s Fish Pub. After undergraduate studies in Perth, Philip relocated to pursue a Master of Music from the Amsterdam Conservatorium, and then a Master of Contemporary Performance from the Manhattan School of Music. His teachers included Harry Sparnaay, Michael Lowenstern, and David Krakauer.
As an active freelancer, Philip has performed with ASKO/Schoenberg Ensemble (NL), Sequitur (USA), etica (AUS), and was a founding member of loadbang (USA). Also in demand as an orchestral musician, he has performed with the West Australian, Adelaide, Tasmanian, and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, as well as Orchestra Victoria and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra.
Philip holds a PhD from Edith Cowan University for his research into modern techniques for bass clarinet, and is Lecturer in Music; Head of Woodwind at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.
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Schools & Education
NextGen: Explore ATAR & More
Earlier this year, WASO, in collaboration with the University of Western Australia (UWA) Conservatorium of Music, delivered an inspiring educational concert at the Heath Ledger Theatre at the State Theatre Centre of WA. Designed specifically for secondary school music students, this annual NextGen: Explore ATAR & More performance offered a unique side-by-side experience, pairing WASO musicians with emerging talent from the Conservatorium.
The event provided an in-depth exploration of key works from the ATAR Music syllabus, combining performance with guided analysis to deepen students’ musical understanding. Under the baton of WASO Associate Conductor, Jen Winley, and with engaging insights from presenter Dr. Ashley Smith, the concert began with Rossini’s vibrant Overture to The Barber of Seville.
The program then delved into three set works from the ATAR syllabus: the first movement of Amy Beach’s Gaelic Symphony, a captivating performance of Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto (third movement) with WASO Principal Trumpet Jenna Smith, and Smetana’s evocative Má Vlast: Vltava (The Moldau).
Through live musical demonstrations and thoughtful commentary, students were guided through the structural, historical, and stylistic elements of each piece. This immersive experience not only enriched their theoretical understanding but also honed their aural and analytical skills — making it a valuable learning opportunity for all in attendance.
The concert reinforced WASO’s ongoing commitment to music education in Western Australia and celebrated the vibrant connection between professional and emerging musicians.
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2025 Annual Giving Appeal
Thank you for joining us on the journey.
As we eclipse the end of the financial year, we wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the incredible generosity we have felt for our Annual Giving Appeal this year.
Our Annual Giving program, a cherished tradition of philanthropy, plays a central role to underpinning the Orchestra’s everyday activities. This program remains one of the most impactful ways music lovers can demonstrate their support and it continues to be a bedrock of our financial foundation.
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We remain truly thankful for the daily dedication shown by our extraordinary donors. Every gift, no matter its size, leaves a lasting impact and, as ticket prices continue to cover only half of our rising operational costs, the generosity of this community will only become more important in the years to come.
Thank you for your unwavering support. With you by our side, we can dream even bigger.
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Pictured: Samantha Wickramasinghe (far left) and Allan Meyer (far right) — Annual Giving Ambassadors with Janet Holmes à Court AC.
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