WEST AUSTRALIAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

INTERNATIONAL RECITAL SERIESMonday 18 March 2013, 7.30pmGovernment House Ballroom

WOLF-FERRARI Quattro Rispetti Op.12 (6 mins)

Quando ti vidi a quel canto apparire [When I saw you appear on the corner]O guarda, guarda quel nobile augello [See, see the noble bird]Angiolo delicato fresco e bello [Angel, delicate, fresh and beautiful]Sia benedetto chi fece lo mondo [Blessed be the one who made the earth]

SIBELIUS War det en dröm? [Was it a dream?], Op.37 No.4 (3 mins)

SIBELIUS Svarta Rosor [Black roses], Op.36 No.1 (2 mins)

WAGNER Wesendonck lieder (23 mins) Der Engel [The angel]Stehe still! [Stand still!] Im Treibhaus [In the Greenhouse]Schmerzen [Suffering]Träume [Dreams]

INTERVAL (20 mins)

STRAUSS Ständchen [Serenade], Op.17 No.2 (3 mins)STRAUSS Schlechtes Wetter [Dreadful Weather], Op.69 No.5 (3 mins) STRAUSS Wiegenlied [Lullaby], Op.41 No.1 (5 mins) STRAUSS Muttertandelei [A mother’s dallying], Op.43 No.2 (3 mins)

BARBER St Ita’s Vision, Op.29 No.3 (4 mins) BARBER Sure on this shining night, Op.13 No.3 (3 mins)

TCHAIKOVSKY Eugene Onegin, Act I: Tatyana’s Letter aria (15 mins)

Orla Boylan, sopranoPaul Daniel, pianoPaul Daniel appears courtesy of Wesfarmers Arts.

PROGRAM

BIOGRAPHIES

ORLA BOYLANSoprano

Heralding a move to the dramatic repertoire of Wagner and Strauss, Orla Boylan made her role debut last season as Senta in The Flying Dutchman for English National Opera and as Chrysothemis in Elektra for West Australian Opera. She has also appeared as Sieglinde (Die Walküre) with ENO and Opéra national du Rhin; as the Overseer in Elektra at the Salzburg Festival; and as Elisabeth (Tannhäuser) for Teatro Comunale di Bologna. A series of title roles in Arabella, Ariadne auf Naxos and most notably the British stage premiere of Die Liebe der Danae for Garsington Opera under Elgar Howarth established Orla Boylan as a respected interpreter of Strauss’ repertoire.

Earlier in her career, following her breakthrough performance as Tatyana in Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s production of Eugene Onegin in Baden-Baden and Photo: Feargal Phillips

Paris, she made her name with the heroines of the Slavonic repertoire. Her acclaimed interpretations of Janáček’s Jenůfa and Káťa Kabanová have taken her to Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburg State Opera, Cologne Opera, Lyon Opera and Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The recent additions to her repertoire of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta for Opera Holland Park and Lisa (Pique Dame) for Komische Oper Berlin and Opera North have met with equal success.

Concert appearances include Britten’s War Requiem at the Perth International Arts Festival, Mahler’s Symphony No.8 with the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, scenes from Wozzeck with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and Four Last Songs which she has performed with the Hallé, Giuseppe Verdi Symphony Orchestra of Milan, and the St Gallen Symphony Orchestra.

Upcoming engagements include War Requiem with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, and roles as Gutrune (Götterdämmerung) for Opera North and Senta for NBR New Zealand Opera.

In 2007 Orla Boylan won a Helpmann Award for her performance of Procne at the Perth International Festival in the world premiere of Richard Mills’ The Love of the Nightingale.

PAUL DANIELPiano

Paul Daniel became Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of WASO in 2009. In 2013 he will take up the positions of Music Director of the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine and Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Galicia. He has appeared as a guest conductor with major orchestras and opera companies throughout the world as well as holding several permanent positions. From 1997 to 2005 he was Music Director of English National Opera; from 1990 to 1997 he was Music Director of Opera North and Principal Conductor of the English Northern Philharmonia; and from 1987 to 1990 he was Music Director of Opera Factory. Operatic guest engagements have included the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, La Monnaie in Brussels, the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich and the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Recent and future operatic plans include Lucrezia Borgia and The Marriage of Figaro for English National Opera, Gloriana for Covent Garden, a new commission by Judith Weir for the Bregenz Festival and Covent Garden, Lulu for La Monnaie in Brussels, a double bill of L’Enfant et les Sortilleges and Der Zwerg for Opéra National de Paris, Les Troyens for the Deutsche Oper Berlin, A Village Romeo and Juliet for Oper Frankfurt, The Turn of the Screw for Zurich Opera and a concert performance of Pelléas et Melisande at the Bolshoi. Orchestral engagements, apart from his concerts with WASO, Orchestre National Bordeaux Acquitaine and Real Filharmonia de Galicia, include concerts with BBC Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Hamburg Symphony, Munich Rundfunkorchester, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Australian National Academy of Music, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and at the Bregenz Festival.

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His many recordings include the hugely successful CD of Elgar’s Third Symphony on Naxos.

In February 1998 Paul Daniel received an Olivier Award for outstanding achievement in opera, and was awarded the CBE in the 2000 New Year’s Honours list.

Paul Daniel appears courtesy of Wesfarmers Arts.

Wolf-Ferrari’s second set of Quattro rispetti, Op.12, dates from 1902. The rispetto (literally ‘respect’ or ‘compliment’) is a common Tuscan poetic form of eight 11-syllable lines with a strict rhyme scheme, and the composer chose four from an 1856 collection. They all celebrate love and beauty – both that of a young man and the natural world.

Sibelius’ first language was Swedish, and despite becoming increasingly a symbol of ‘ethnic’ Finnish culture, continued to produce Romantic-style songs to Swedish texts throughout his career. ‘War det en dröm?’ (poem by J J Wecksell) and ‘Svarta Rosor’ (Ernst Josephson) date from 1902 and 1899 respectively, when Sibelius was enjoying his first international successes and becoming a political force at home. Both songs deal with the overwhelming grief of lost love.

In 1857 Wagner moved into a cottage in Zurich owned by a prosperous cloth-merchant, Otto Wesendonck. He promptly had an affair with Otto’s wife, Mathilde and set five of her poems. The songs are about redemption from a

world of pain and suffering; calling on nature to stop its flux; depicting pot-plants suffering unrequited desire for the sun, whose setting and rising reflects the waves of despair and elation felt by the poet, and dreams that reflect the unreality of existence. ‘Im Treibhaus’ and ‘Träume’ contain music later incorporated into Tristan und Isolde.

Strauss once wrote, ‘Eros himself sings in Mozart’s melody; Love in its most beautiful, purest form speaks to our feelings…’ The same could be said of Strauss’ music. He began writing lieder early in his career: ‘Ständchen’ (text by Schack) dates from the mid-1880s; there was a hiatus in song-writing after his wife, Pauline de Ahna retired from singing but he returned to it in 1918 with such works as ‘Schlechtes Wetter’ (Heine). Pauline had inspired most of the songs in the interim, such as ‘Wiegenlied’ (Richard Dehmel) and ‘Muttertändelei’ (G.A. Bürger) and, both composed in 1899 and both reflecting the parents’ joy in their baby son.

Much of Barber’s work is vocal. At the Curtis Institute he studied singing,

piano and composition, and after graduation worked for a time as a professional baritone with a series of broadcasts on NBC, so his vocal writing is practically flawless. Composed for Leontyne Price in 1952-3, Hermit Songs set monastic Irish texts of the Middle Ages in versions by several poets; ‘Saint Ita’s Vision’ is by Chester Kallman, and depicts the saint breastfeeding the Christ Child. Barber’s best-known song, ‘Sure on this shining night’ sets a poem by James Agee, and was composed in 1938.

In Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin a country girl, Tatyana, falls madly in love with a cynical young man, Onegin, who allows her to humiliate herself in a love-letter to him, the basis of this aria, before spurning her. Years later Onegin attends a ball where a glamorous princess turns out to be Tatyana. He now falls in love with her, but she refuses to leave her husband, leaving Onegin to face a bitter and lonely old age.

Program note by Gordon Kerry © 2013

PROGRAM NOTES

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REFRESHMENTSRefreshments will be available for purchase pre-concert and at interval from the bar located in the Supper Room. This can be accessed by lift or stairs to the right of the audience seating area.

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INTERNATIONALINTRODUCING OUR NEW 2013

RECITAL SERIESPIANIST Denis KozhukhinMonday 17 June, 7.30pm

CELLIST | Alban GerhardtMonday 9 September, 7.30pmAsher Fisch, piano

Experience the magnificent Government House Ballroom in a new series of world-class soloists in intimate recitals.

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EXPERIENCE WASO MUSICIANS PLAYING EXQUISITE CHAMBER MUSIC IN AFTERNOON PERFORMANCES WITH RESERVED SEATING.

MOZART’S SERENADEFriday 22 November, 2pmGovernment House Ballroom

Sunday 24 November, 2pmFremantle Town Hall

TCHAIKOVSKY & BRAHMSFriday 12 April, 2pmGovernment House Ballroom

Sunday 14 April, 2pmFremantle Town Hall

SCHUBERT’S OCTETFriday 30 August, 2pmGovernment House Ballroom

Sunday 1 September, 2pmFremantle Town Hall

2013CHAMBERSERIES