In conjunction with The Glebe Society Inc
Sunday 8th November 2009 at 3pm
The Great Hall University of Sydney
Free concert by the Ensembles Studies Unit of the
Sydney Conservatorium of Music
1.
Romance for Wind and Brass Quintets by the Australian composer Ralph Middenway.
The work is based on images from Shakespeare’s The Tempest and is scored for a dectet of wind instruments. Interspersed will be readings from the play itself and some song settings of Shakespeare by Gerald Finzi and Eric Korngold. The songs will be sung by Amy Corkery (soprano) and Morgan Pearse (baritone), accompanied by David Miller.
2. Work for wind dectet by the American composer Robert Washburn.
3. Two works for wind quintet: Ravel’s Tombeau de Couperin and a Mozart quintet.
Preceded by a carillon recital by Edward Grantham in the quadrangle at 2pm
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Wind Quintet in C Major – Adagio(arranged by Mordechai Rechtman in 1926)
This work was originally written for a wind ensemble of 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 horns and 2 bassoons. This combination of wind instruments was known as an ‘harmonie’ ensemble and became popular by the mid-eighteenth century, particularly in Salzburg. Composed when Mozart was in his mid-twenties, it was given the title “Serenade” in its original form. Its purpose was as background music and entertainment for occasions such as garden parties, weddings or birthdays, and for private concerts in aristocratic homes.
Although considered somewhat lighter than string quartets of symphonic works, the Serenades and Divertimentos Mozart composed at this time still received serious treatment. The first movement of the C Major Serenade is an example of the development of themes and tight sonata form structure that Mozart perfected in his prodigious output. This transcription for woodwind quintet was arranged by bassoonist Mordechai Rechtman, founder of the “Israel Woodwind Quintet”.
Michael
Last – flute
Angus
Lindsay – oboe
Amy Whyte
– clarinet
Jakab
Kaufmann – bassoon
Kartini
Suharto-Martin – horn
The Sydney Wind Collective formed in 2008 as part of the Chamber Music Course at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where all members are currently studying a Bachelor of Music (Performance). Originally formed as a woodwind quartet, the ensemble was joined by French horn in July 2009 to complete the quintet. The Sydney Wind Collective has performed in various locations around Sydney including Christ Church Lavender Bay, St James’ King Street and St Stephen’s Uniting Church Macquarie Street. The group has also toured in western regional New South Wales.
Members particularly enjoy introducing audiences to wind quintet repertoire of the twentieth century. The ensemble has received tutelage from members of the New South Wales Wind Quintet, Andrew Barnes, Alexandre Oguey and Andrew Bain, as well as from James Kortum, lecturer in flute at the Sydney Conservatorium.
Gerald Finzi: Let Us Garlands Bring (Five Shakespeare Songs) Op. 18
Come away, come
away, death
Who is Sylvia?
Fear no more the
heat o’ the sun
O Mistress Mine
It was a lover and
his lass
A cycle of Shakespeare texts, dealing with love and the passing of time, as set for voice and piano by one of the finest British composers of vocal music of his time. These are the best-known of his song settings.
This work was composed between 1929 and 1942, and dedicated to Ralph Vaughan Williams on the occasion of his 70th birthday. The first performance was given on 12th October 1942 at the National Gallery, London, by Robert Irwin (baritone) and Howard Ferguson (piano).
‘Fear no more the heat o’ the sun’ is regarded by many as perhaps the best English Art Song of the twentieth century.
Morgan Pearse –
bass-baritone
David Miller –
piano
Twenty-one year old bass-baritone Morgan Pearse is a scholarship student studying at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He studies under the vocal direction of Maree Ryan, Chair of Vocal Studies and Opera at the Sydney Conservatorium.
Morgan has considerable experience in recital, choral works and opera. Opera credits include the role of Garibaldo in Handel’s Rodelinda with the Early Music Ensemble conducted by Neal Peres Da Coasta, and Mr Gedge in Britten’s Albert Herring conducted by Stephen Mould and directed by Tom Heath. He has been a featured soloist with Pacific Opera collaborating with artists such as Jane Rutter.
He was featured soloist in the Sydney Philharmonia’s production of The Tempest by Henry Purcell, conducted by Brett Weymark. Morgan continues his solo work with the Philharmonia in 2009 with its programme entitled St Cecilia.
Morgan has a particular interest in early music, performing regularly as soloist with the Sydneian Bach Choir in their Bach 2010 project, to perform all of J. S. Bach’s Choral cantatas. Morgan has had solo engagements with the Sydney Festival Choir, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Coro Innominata, the Conservatorium Choir and the Conservatorium Early Music Ensemble. Of particular interest in this style is his performance of Scarlatti Serenatas with period orchestra, period dress and baroque gesture directed by the world expert in the field of Baroque gesture, Helga Hill.
Morgan continues solo engagements in the coming months, singing Handel’s Messiah and his Dettingen Te Deum, as well as Rossini’s Stabat Mater. In solo recitals Morgan has performed with Simon Kenway, David Miller AM and Jane Rutter, and in his masterclasses with Thomas Otten, Susan Ropert and Philip Langridge. He has recorded for 2MBS-FM, ABC Classic FM and Eastside Radio 89.7 on numerous occasions.
David Miller is widely recognized as one of Australia’s leading chamber musicians and vocal accompanists, and has been appointed as a member of the Order of Australia for his service to music. His distinguished career has included partnerships with many internationally renowned instrumentalists and vocalists. His busy performing schedule has taken him to the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Asia and the Pacific Islands as well as to most parts of Australia.
David also works for the ABC and Musica Viva Australia, and records for Tall Poppies and ABC Classics. He has been on the staff of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music since 1980 and in 1995 was appointed the first chair of the Ensemble Studies Unit. His studio has produced many of Australia’s finest piano accompanists and he has been instrumental in setting up the Geoffrey Parsons Australian Scholarship to assist all young accompanists and repetiteurs in the development of their careers. He is also currently the President of the Accompanists’ Guild of New South Wales.
Ralph Middenway: Romance for Wind and Brass Quintets based on images from Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest”
An uninhabited
island
A ship at sea
Caliban
Duke Prospero
Ralph Middenway was born in Sydney on 9th September 1932. At the University of Sydney he commenced studies in Engineering but switched to Music and Anthropology. He remembers with pleasure his first concert première in the Great Hall. He has worked as a theatre manager, stage director, production manager and theatre consultant. When working he quotes his compositional guru Raymond Hanson: “Pattern making isn’t enough; the stuff of music is building and release of tension; compositions are for performers and audiences, not just for us; style and substance are more important than passing fashion”. He has composed other works surrounding The Tempest: “The Tempest”, one of three operas he has written and “The Enchanted Island”, a half-hour concert piece from “The Tempest” written on commission in 2005. He also works as a writer, notably co-editing a book of essays on “Parsifal” for the South Australian Wagner Society (of which he was a Founding Chair). He now lives on his native flower farm south of Adelaide.
Brass and Wind Ensemble:
Nick Reefman –
trumpet
Justin Williams –
trumpet
Mitchell Nissan –
trombone
Doug Livingstone –
horn
Jy Perry-Banks –
tuba
Oliver Baker –
flute
Kevin Smith –
clarinet
Emma Phillips –
obe
Cameron Burnes –
bassoon
Gill Williams –
horn
Steve Rossé – conductor and director:
Steve Rossé is an award-winning tuba player and Lecturer in Tuba and Brass Studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He plays principal tuba with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and is a member of the Sydney Alpha (New Music) Ensemble, the Graham Ashton Brass Ensemble and the TubaMania Quartet. He also performs regularly with the Philadelphia Orchestra and other symphony orchestras and ensembles around the world.
Rossé joined the Sydney Symphony Orchestra as Principal Tubist in 1990. He has frequently performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra and at the Grand Teton Music Festival. He has also worked with the symphony orchestras of Boston, San Francisco and Adelaide, and with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
Steve Rossé has attracted students from all over the globe to his tuba studio at the Sydney Conservatorium, now considered the best place to learn and study tube in the Asia Pacific region, ranking alongside the best tuba schools in the world. Several of Rossé’s former students occupy major orchestral positions throughout Australia, Asia and Europe, and have performed with orchestras ranging from the Tasmanian Symphony to the Berlin and London Philharmonic Orchestras.
In addition to his teaching work at the Conservatorium, Rossé is a Visiting Professor at Silipakorn University in Thailand and teaches annually at the Dolce International Academy in Japan. He travels the world on average ten weeks per year, giving masterclasses and recitals/concerto performances, including recent Visiting Professor positions at the National University of Singapore and the Milano Conservatorio in Italy. Other recent formal and informal teaching includes the Shanghai Conservatory and Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.
Nick Reefman (trumpet, Sydney Conservatorium of Music) states: “This is our first recording of the Middenway Romance. The Middenway is an intriguing piece based on William Shakespeare’s The Tempest that our ensemble adopted part-way through its time together. It is an Australian composition which paints pictures originating in the original play. If the piece can be interpreted as impressionistic, you may hear a boat bobbing up and down amongst the waves with seagulls fling past at the beginning! Unfortunately, the original instrumental parts were lost and the ensemble you hear today had to created parts from the full score”.
Eric Korngold: Four Shakespeare Songs Op. 31 (composed from 1937 to 1941)
Desdemona’s
Song
Under the Greenwood
Tree
Blow, Blow, Thou
Winter Wind
When Birds Do Sing
Korngold first admired the work of Shakespeare when he was invited to Hollywood in 1934 to work on the score for the film version of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. He began to study Shakespeare’s works in great detail and in 1936 came across these four poems. After the first performance of Four Shakespeare Songs in 1941, in an interview Korngold was asked how he found composing English songs compared to lieder and the orchestral scores for screen that had resulted in his fame. His response was: “The simplicity of the scores reflects my admiration for Shakespeare’s power of language. My endeavour was to add nothing that could not already be heard when an actor reads his words aloud” (Brendan G. Carroll. Erich Wolfgang Korngold: His Life and Works. Wilfion Books, Scotland, 1988. Page 73).
Amy Corkery: soprano
David Miller: piano
Amy began her vocal lessons and passion for classical singing whilst growing up in Orange, New South Wales. In 2006 she moved to Sydney to further her professional training at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, under the guidance of Maree Ryan, Chair of Vocal and Opera Studies. Amy is currently completing her Honours in a Bachelor of Performance (Advanced Voice).
Since moving to Sydney, Amy has been performing in various competitions, scholarships, awards and concerts, some of which include: concerts for the Schubert Society and Ryde Performing Arts Centre, Winner of the Margaret Henderson Scholarship (2006), the Bud Brown Memorial Scholarship (2006-2007), Finalist in the National Aria and Winner of the National Art Song Prize – Canberra (2007). In 2008 she was finalist for the third time in the Dame Joan Sutherland Vocal Scholarship, adjudicated by Richard Bonynge. Amy also received her L. Mus. A with Distinction in October 2008.
In 2009 Amy has performed for the AMEB Graduation Ceremony, performed a solo recital for 2MBS-FM in the Young Performers Award, performed a solo recital for the Art Song Society of Canberra, and was the Soprano Soloist for the Sydney University Choir and Orchestra’s performance of Haydn’s “The Seasons” in August.
Amy’s plan is to complete a Diploma of Opera at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music 2010-2012.
David Miller (see notes above)
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937): Le Tombeau de Couperin (transcribed and arranged by Mason Jones in 1919)
Prélude
Fugue
Menuet
Rigaudon
“Le Tombeau de Couperin” was composed between 1914 and 1917 as a six movement suite for piano solo. Like several of Ravel’s piano works, including the “Mother Goose Suite”, he later orchestrated it. The orchestral version features woodwind colours prominently, which is reflected in this arrangement. The title refers to the eighteenth century French composer Françoise Couperin (1688-1733), although the work pays homage not only to Couperin but also to French Baroque music in general. The form itself, a suite of dance movements, was very common for French instrumental music of the 17th Century. The term ‘Tombeau’, meaning homage or memorial, takes on another meaning considering that Ravel dedicated each movement to a friend who died fighting in the First World War. The work was transcribed for woodwind by Mason Jones, horn player of the “Philadelphia Woodwind Quintet”.
Robert Washburn: Concertino for Wind and Brass
Robert Washburn was born in New York on 11th July 1928. After completing a PhD in Composition, he received a Ford Foundation Grant which permitted him to devote a year to composition. He also received grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Juilliard Repertory Project and Meet the Composer. He studied with celebrated composers Darius Milhaud and Alan Hovhannes. More than 150 of Washburn’s compositions have been published by Warner Brothers/Belwin, Boosey and Hawkes, oxford University Press, G. Schirmer, Theodore Presser, Shawnee Press and Thompson Edition. His works have been performed in orchestras and other ensembles all over the world. Robert Washburn is a Composer-Member of Ars Nova Press, Inc., a non-profit publishing house dedicated to promoting the musical compositions of skilled modern classical composers.
Nick Reefman (trumpet, Sydney Conservatorium of Music) states: “I found the Washburn Concertino two years ago amongst thousands of old scores and manuscripts, but it was the only one of its kind. I could not find any recordings but when I hummed through it, I realised the material’s potential and decided there and then that I had to gather an ensemble together to perform and record it. After a few failed attempts throughout my course to organise a group, I suddenly realised in my last semester that this was my last chance and the project just had to work this time. It’s not easy to co-ordinate a 10-piece ensemble for rehearsals, recordings and concerts, but with bribes of home-made mead and cookies, and sacrifices in our schedules, it all fell together. This is our second recording of the Washburn Concertino”.
The Sydney Wind Collective (see notes above)
Sydney Conservatorium of Music Ensemble Studies Unit:
The Sydney Conservatorium Ensemble Studies Unit was formed in 1995 and is responsible for chamber music and piano accompaniment tuition throughout the Conservatorium. Students at both graduate and undergraduate levels are organized into ensembles ranging from string quartets and piano trios to vocal duets, wind octets and percussion quartets. In the Spring 2009 semester there are 65 groups in the programme. All ensembles attend regular tutorials and seminars with Conservatorium staff members and are provided with a wide range of performance opportunities in the form of concerts, broadcasts and country tours. This year student chamber groups have also traveled to the North and South Coasts and the West of New South Wales, as well as various individual suburban and regional centres. Many of the groups have already established reputations in the wider musical community outside the Conservatorium and have had success in various competitions such as the Musica Viva Award for Chamber Music at the McDonald’s Performing Arts Challenge. The proceeds of public performances given by student chamber groups are used to benefit all of the students in their studies and in their preparation for a musical career.
For those who love Shakespeare, here
is another event at the University of Sydney
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