season '16

51 Pages·2015·1.65 MB·English

SEASON ‘16
Orchestra Wellington, PO Box 11-977
Manners Street, Wellington 6142
Level 8, Alcatel-Lucent House
(13-27 Manners St), Wellington
LAST
WORDS!
#LASTWORDS2016
Orchestra Wellington is well-established Wellington is well-known as the creative
as a vital component of the Capital’s cultural capital of New Zealand, home to many
life, and the region’s music lovers have prolific and active artistic companies that
much to look forward to in the 2016 season. breathe vitality and charisma.
Filled with evocative works that will stimulate
Orchestra Wellington offers many amazing
the imagination of listeners of all ages,
and imaginative musical experiences. Since
audiences will appreciate the Subscription
1950 they have amassed a vibrant body
Series, which explores legendary works
of work. 2016 has a line-up that promises
of the orchestral repertoire and features
memorable performances from many
a number of acclaimed New Zealand and
genres. Orchestra Wellington remains
international soloists.
committed to making music accessible,
Known for its versatility, Orchestra with tickets at a range of price points for
Wellington will also continue to collaborate those who book early.
with other national and regional cultural
Wellington has world-class musicians,
organisations in 2016, working alongside
composers and performers who call this city
the Royal New Zealand Ballet and New
home, and we’re a popular destination with
Zealand Opera, as well as Wellington’s
many who travel from around the world to
own Orpheus Choir.
experience our unique culture. Orchestra
I commend Orchestra Wellington for Wellington’s inspiring partnership with
its commitment to fostering the next Arohanui Strings has also enabled new
generation of musicians and music-lovers musical talent to thrive here.
through its wide array of educational and
The capital’s dramatic natural landscape
outreach projects, notably the orchestra’s
and thriving metropolitan culture are home
relationship with Arohanui Strings –
to both well-established and up and coming
Sistema Hutt Valley and its expanded
musical talent. Wellington City Council
Music-to-Schools programme. These
is delighted to have increased funding to
initiatives enable many young people in
Orchestra Wellington in our 10-year plan.
the Wellington region to engage with the
arts and be inspired by the transformative I’d like to thank the many dedicated
power of music. performers and audience members whose
creative passion continues to make arts
I wish Marc Taddei and the members of
in Wellington thrive. I look forward to
Orchestra Wellington all the very best
Orchestra Wellington’s 2016 season.
for an exciting year of vibrant and diverse
music-making in 2016. Ngā mihi mahana.
Hon. Maggie BarryONZM Celia Wade-Brown
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Mayor of Wellington
LAST
WORDS!
Welcome to Orchestra Wellington’s musical canon. Together, we will explore
2016 season!  music of the greatest profundity, music
of the most ineffable lightness, and some
There is something extraordinary about the
of the most joyous music ever composed.
final masterpieces of great composers. 
This season truly focuses on what makes
While all of the masterpieces that we are
orchestral music so inspiring and thrilling. 
performing were written at different life
It is an honour and a great responsibility to
stages, and not all were written with the
be Wellington’s orchestra. We strive to offer
full knowledge of the end, the common
our lively and diverse community a musical
link with all of these works is that each
journey that is inclusive for all. In addition
composer valued knowledge and skill; all
to our Subscription Series, we also offer
saw themselves as building upon, rather
great concerts for the family and children,
than bucking, tradition. It is because of this
local free outdoor events and, of course,
commitment to a lifetime’s dedication to
we maintain a pivotal role in accompanying
craft and inspiration that the legend around
for the Royal New Zealand Ballet, New
these works grew.
Zealand Opera, Orpheus Choir and
In general, we are fascinated by the last
several visiting artists.
thing that anyone does, and this fascination
Your orchestra has a comprehensive
is given greater intensity when the
Music-to-Schools programme that focuses
person is a great artist. Ever since Mahler
on communities and schools with little
suggested the romantic notion of the curse
or no exposure to live music. We are
of the 9th symphony – the myth that after
thrilled beyond measure to continue our
Beethoven, no one could write past this
partnership with Arohanui Strings – Sistema
number – our culture has been fascinated
Hutt Valley, which is part of a visionary
by the idea of composers creating profound
global movement transforming the lives of
works of art that transcend their time and
children through music.
speak directly to us. 
But in fact, what the arts does and what
With these final masterpieces, there is huge
we strive to do every time we perform is
poignancy in contemplating the process of
to transform lives and contribute to the
development. It speaks to the fundamental
vibrancy of our great city.
nature of creativity and how this unfolds
over a lifetime.
Please join us in this moving exploration
Marc Taddei Adán E. Tijerina
of some of the greatest monuments in the
Music Director General Manager
LAST WORDS Fittingly, we perform Beethoven’s Ninth
Symphony, which stands in the centre
This season we delight in some of the
of these works. This is Beethoven’s final
most profound music ever composed.
symphonic utterance and serves as a
These monumental works are made all
promethean force and stunning example to
the more profound by being among their
every subsequent composer of symphonies.
composers’ last creations. They include
It is impossible to overstate this work’s
pivotal symphonies and some of their last
impact. The Ninth is a monumental
great works for voice and piano. Performing
symphony whose gravitational pull affects
them, we will deepen our relationship with
all others. We’ve paired it in a concert by
valued colleagues such as the Orpheus Choir,
Beethoven’s old mentor Haydn. An early
pianist Michael Houstoun, and stunning
work, but we hear Haydn toying with the
vocal soloists we’ve previously worked with.
elaboration of themes he would master
Some of these masterpieces are deathbed later – and which Beethoven would develop
utterances, forced out by superhuman in unimaginable directions. It’s Haydn’s
effort in a race against time. We are left in Last Word also, because the manuscript
awe of the generosity of these composers was lost until the 1960s.
who wanted to give the deepest soundings
The great composers who came after
of their souls to the future for safekeeping.
Beethoven had to face up to the challenge
In the case of Bartok, his great friend of his incredible symphonic achievements
Tibor Serly described visiting him the night and find something new to say, and a new
before he was moved to the hospital where way to say it.
he died. Bartok was in bed, surrounded by
Maybe for Schubert the pressure was less
medicines, trying to finish his Third Piano
intense – for most of his life, symphonies
Concerto: a bright and generous surprise
were something he wrote for the pleasure
gift for his concert pianist wife, Ditta.
of sharing them in the orchestras he
Mozart’s last works – the Requiem, the played in with his friends. They were not
Clarinet Concerto, and the motet Ave performed publicly in his lifetime. But in
Verum – look forward to Beethoven in 1824 he wrote of his eager anticipation
their expressive humanity. By his final year, to hear Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
Mozart had long since mastered technical performed, and confided his plans to
perfection. The three works we play are attempt a much grander symphony of
gifts to his friends and colleagues, and his own. The C major “Great” symphony
that strange, premonitory commission, a was Schubert’s response. Mahler took
Requiem whose composition cut him off in Beethoven’s lead in using the voice in some
the full flow of his creative height. of his symphonies. He also followed his
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view of the symphony as the record of a recognition; Metamorphosen, written in the
soul’s journey from one state to another, closing stages of World War II, is Strauss’s
or a way of seeking meaning. anguished memorial to a lost culture:
it quotes from Beethoven and Wagner.
He only completed the first movement of
The closing scene from his final opera,
his Tenth Symphony, and it is an intense
Capriccio, is arguably the most sumptuous
and visionary work – written under the full
in his entire oeuvre: a distillation of Strauss’
realisation of his impending death and his
art as an operatic composer.
wife’s affair with Walter Gropius. It is an
impassioned adagio to his wife that wavers Tchaikovsky’s symphonies we have already
on the edge of tonality. Mahler’s inner covered throughout 2015; it is time for us
turmoil is laid bare to the listener and in his to present Tchaikovsky’s last masterpiece
manuscript, he wrote entreaties to his wife, for the ballet, the Nutcracker. Tchaikovsky’s
including, “für dich leben! für dich sterben!” distinctive musical gift includes a kind
“To live for you! To die for you!” A more of physicality that impels and urges
personal account of inner turmoil made movement. Nutcracker also shows him at
manifest in music has not been written the peak of his powers as an orchestrator.
and is one of the most sublime moments His work is paired with another great
in early modernism. orchestrator and lover of the stage, Berlioz.
We also perform one of the most moving The Orchestra finishes the year with a
works of high modernism by one of departure from the theme. Holst’s suite
Mahler’s many disciples – the Violin “The Planets” was something of a one-off
Concerto of Alban Berg. Dedicated for him, a grand canvas for the imagination.
“to the memory of an angel”, this most It is paired with the Orchestra’s new
deeply felt of all violin concertos was commissions for this year in a celebration
inspired by the death of Manon, the 18 of music as a vital, living artform.
year old daughter of Alma Mahler and
Walter Gropius. Although intended as
a requiem for her, it became Berg’s own
requiem, as he died of complications from
a bee sting, shortly after its composition.
We play three final works by Strauss,
written in the most horrific of circumstances
by a great composer near the end of
his life. His Festmusik celebrates a city
that was soon to be bombed beyond
12 13
ODES TO JOY
CAPRICCIO
MOZART 1791
LAST
TO THE
WORDS!
MEMORY OF
AN ANGEL
NUTCRACKER
PLANETS
14 15
I’M SO HAPPY
I COULD DIE
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SUBS 1
ODES TO JOY
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) How else can we begin our exploration
of “final” works other than with the
Symphony No. 9, Op. 125
symphony that cast its shadow over
composed 1822–1824
an entire century?
Jenny Wollerman Soprano
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is without
Elisabeth Harris Alto
question one of the monuments of
Henry Choo Tenor the Western canon and the history of
music is impossible to consider without
Warwick Fyfe Bass
acknowledging its genius, sublimity
Orpheus Choir of Wellington and influence. 
Jenny Wollerman is the thinking musician’s
soprano – an artist of exquisite style and
Joseph HAYDN (1732–1809)
taste. We are delighted to introduce
Cello Concerto in C major, Hob. VIIb-1
to our audiences young and vibrant
composed 1761–1765
mezzo soprano, Elisabeth Harris. We first
Rustem Khamidullin Cello worked with Henry Choo during our 2014
Grand Prize Winner Gisborne International performance of Carmina Burana. Who
Music Competition 2014 could forget his performance there of
the roasting swan? This was as fine as we
have heard anywhere. We are particularly
excited to work with Warwick Fyfe, one of
Australia’s finest baritones and the winner
of a prestigious Helpmann Award.
CONCERT PARTNER
We pair this with a work by Beethoven’s
teacher and the father of the symphony,
Marc Taddei Conductor
featuring the 2014 winner of New Zealand’s
longest running music competition.
Saturday 11 June, 7:30pm
Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington
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