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KEYNOTES
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A brief introduction to read
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look for Keynotes in the
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HISTORICAL SNAPSHOTS
Celebrating our 75th
anniversary season, a series
of illustrated articles by
historian and concert
programmer David Garrett.
EXPANDED CONCERT
INTRODUCTION
This popular overview of the
concert hasn’t gone, we’ve
simply moved it off the title
page to the beginning of the
program notes.
SEASON 2007
KALEIDOSCOPE SERIES
ANTARCTIC SYMPHONY
Thursday 22 March
| 8pm
Saturday 24 March
| 8pm
Sydney Opera House Concert Hall
Richard Mills conductor
Michael Kieran Harvey piano and synthesiser
John Bell speaker
Penelope Mills soprano
Female voices of Cantillation
Antony Walker music director
John Bell appears by arrangement with Bell Shakespeare Company
BARRY CONYNGHAM (born 1944)
Monuments – Concerto for piano, synthesiser
and orchestra
Uluru, The Rock / Sydney Opera House
The Barrier Reef / The Snowy Scheme
The Apostles / Cityscape
INTERVAL
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872–1958)
Sinfonia antartica (Symphony No.7)
Prelude (Andante maestoso)
Scherzo (Moderato – poco animando)
Landscape (Lento)
Intermezzo (Andante sostenuto)
Epilogue (Alla marcia moderato ma non troppo –
Andante maestoso)
With Herbert Ponting’s photographs from the
Scott Expedition and excerpts from Scott’s journals
Pre-concert talk by Raff Wilson
at 7.15pm in the Northern Foyer.
Estimated timings:
26 minutes, 20 minute interval,
52 minutes
The performance will conclude
at approximately 9.45pm.
Cover images: see page 30 for
captions
Program notes begin on page 5
Artist biographies begin on
page 18
INTRODUCTION
This is a concert of monuments. Barry Conyngham’s music
responds to six enduring landmarks of Australia: natural
sites and manmade structures that exert a power over the
imagination. Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Sinfonia antartica
evokes an outstanding example of courage and loyalty in
the face of an implacable natural environment.
Monuments – a piano concerto in all but name – was
completed in 1989 and receives its Australian premiere
this week. Each of its movements pairs a natural and a
manmade monument. This is music that captures the
grandeur and the subtlety of the Australian landscape, and
the end is achieved with distinctive orchestral colouration.
Even the soloist is given an extended palette, with parts
to play on a DX7 or synthesiser. And the layout of the
orchestra builds on the idea of pairings and contrasts with
a ‘stereo’ arrangement of what are effectively two string
orchestras.
Colour also plays an elemental role in Sinfonia antartica.
Vaughan Williams adds a wordless chorus with soprano
solo, organ and a wind machine to invoke the spirit of
the Antarctic – desolate, beautiful and cruel. There is a
darkness to the symphony, which was drawn from music
that Vaughan Williams had written for the 1947 film Scott of
the Antarctic, but – as in the film – there is also a celebration
of the nobility and courage in Scott’s ill-fated expedition
to the South Pole.
Sinfonia antartica is far more than a suite of music from a
film – Vaughan Williams did not name it his ‘Symphony No.7’
without good reason. But in presenting it with projected
photographs from the expedition and readings from Scott’s
journals we pay tribute to its cinematic conception and
bring to the foreground a tragic and powerful story that
continues to attract the modern imagination.
The Sydney Opera House is one of Barry Conyngham’s ‘Monuments’
Help it become one of the New 7 Wonders of the World!
Support this much-loved Australian icon in its bid to become one of the New 7 Wonders of the
World, to be announced on 07.07.07*.
The Sydney Opera House is the newest of the world wonders and an important piece of modernist
architecture, so it’s time for anyone who has marvelled at the unforgettable, soaring shells of the
Sydney Opera House to pick up the phone or go online and vote.
To vote visit www.new7wonders.com, text “SOH” to 1977 7717, or dial 1902 977 777**.
Sydney Opera House – it’s our world wonder down under.
* Half of the profits generated from this first-ever global vote will be donated to good causes in monument restoration and preservation.
** Each text message costs $0.55. Each phone call costs $0.55 per minute. Online voting is free.
5 | Sydney Symphony
HERBERT PONTING
Antarctic Symphony
ABOUT THE MUSIC
Barry Conyngham (born 1944)
Monuments – Concerto for piano, synthesiser
and orchestra
Keynotes
Uluru, The Rock / Sydney Opera House
The Barrier Reef / The Snowy Scheme
The Apostles / Cityscape
As a young composer Barry
Conyngham was influenced
by Peter Sculthorpe, who
in turn encouraged him to
explore the music of Japan.
This brought him in contact
with composer Takemitsu,
who became an important
influence. After Takemitsu’s
death in 1996, Conyngham
composed an orchestral work
for the Sydney Symphony,
Passing, which celebrated
his life. Conyngham’s music
is often inspired by the
‘intimidating grandeur of
Australia’s landforms’ and
‘the subtlety of its changes’.
Michael Kieran Harvey, piano and synthesiser
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
About the composer
Born in Sydney, Barry Conyngham has been a major
figure in Australian music for over three decades.
Recently premiered works include Veils 2 in Oslo, 2003;
Dreams go wandering still at the 2004 Adelaide Festival;
the monodrama Fix, performed by Teddy Tahu Rhodes
and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2004 and the
Melbourne Symphony’s performance of Now that darkness
in 2005. Last year saw the premieres of Cathedral in
Edinburgh, To the Edge with Melbourne’s Pro Arte
chamber orchestra and the chamber opera Electric Lenin
commissioned by Lyndon Terracini.
In the mid-1960s, Conyngham found a mentor in
Peter Sculthorpe, who encouraged his students to
explore the music of Australia’s neighbours. In 1970
Conyngham travelled to Japan, rather than Europe, on
a Churchill Fellowship where he produced the score
for Horizon (a film shown in the Australian pavilion at
Expo 70) and commenced studies with Tōru Takemitsu.
Two of Conyngham’s most significant early works date
from this time: Water…Footsteps…Time…, and the
concerto for amplified violin and four string orchestras,
Ice Carving. The latter work, inspired by seeing the
traditional carving of monumental ice sculptures in
the Imperial Gardens in Tokyo, demonstrates many of
the concerns with which Conyngham’s subsequent music
has had an ongoing engagement.
Both Sculthorpe and Takemitsu encouraged
Conyngham’s ear for vivid colour and texture.
Conyngham celebrated the life of the late Japanese
composer in Passing, composed for the Sydney Symphony
Orchestra in 1998; his recent orchestral work, Dreams
go wandering still pays tribute to Sculthorpe through
an image from the great Japanese haiku poet, Bashō,
whose work Conyngham has used in a number of pieces.
CONYNGHAM
Born Sydney, 1944
He says three themes
dominate his music: ‘what
it means to be Australian;
my involvement with Japan;
to explore the emotional.’
MONUMENTS
Monuments is in three
movements, each one
taking a pair of Australian
monuments (one man-made,
the other natural) as
inspiration. The piano soloist
is given an expanded range
of colour with parts of the
concerto played on DX7 (in
this concert a contemporary
synthesiser).
Monuments was
commissioned by the Albany
Symphony Orchestra (New
York State) and premiered by
that orchestra and Australian
conductor Geoffrey Simon
in 1989. Despite its
Australian themes, it has
not been performed in
Australia before.
Conyngham further enriched his musical palette by
assimilating certain techniques of Polish composers such
as Lutoslawski. He learned the effective use of aleatoric
counterpoint – where a complex and active texture can
be created by giving performers a degree of rhythmic
freedom – and a harmonic structure built around series
of strongly profiled chords.
Conyngham’s music frequently contemplates what
he describes as the ‘intimidating grandeur of Australia’s
landforms’ and ‘the subtlety of its changes’. The ballet
score Vast, composed for the bicentenary of white
settlement in 1988, depicts the oceans, coasts, deserts
and cities of Australia; the concerto for violin and piano,
Southern Cross, evokes the sweep of the continent and
the huge sky under which it lies; two concertos dating
from 1990, Waterways for viola and Cloudlines for harp,
reflect no specific location, but rather the large-scale
forces and natural processes which create the
landscape.
Barry Conyngham
Monuments – a guide
For Conyngham, Australia’s cities are part of the
landscape, as capable of engendering awe, joy or isolation
as are the deserts. Thus each of the three movements
of the keyboard concerto Monuments pairs one natural
and one built feature of the landscape as its central,
generative image. These landmarks are linked by a
common attribute, but beyond any visual similarities are
obvious contrasts; these generate the musical contrasts
which dominate the work. Pairing also dictates the
orchestral layout: the strings, for instance, are divided
into equal, antiphonal bands. The first movement
contrasts the two most recognisable images of Australia:
the monolith of Uluru and the architectural masterpiece
that is the Sydney Opera House. The movement begins
not with the stark magnitude of the desert, however,
but with a strenuous passage for solo piano: this is a
concerto, after all, and concertos feature in the Opera
House Concert Hall. Typically for Conyngham, the
soloist’s range of expression is enhanced by the use of
DX7 synthesiser (or equivalent) as well as piano. It may
be that a characteristic series of chords from the brass
reflects the central Australian landscape; the chords
also act as a reservoir of harmony explored through
the piece.
7 | Sydney Symphony
The DX7
The Yamaha DX7 was a
landmark in the history of
the synthesiser. The first
commercially successful
digital synthesiser, it was
manufactured between 1983
and 1986, and enjoyed huge
popularity. The instrument
can be heard in the work of
artists such as Stevie
Wonder, Vangelis, Phil
Collins and Queen. It was
particularly successful in
creating bell and chime-like
sounds. In this performance
we are using a descendent
of the DX7, a Kurzweil
synthesiser, for which Barry
Conyngham has specially
re-worked the required
sounds.
The unifying feature of the second movement is, of
course, water, where the music contrasts the amazing,
though fragile, environment of the Great Barrier Reef
with one of Australia’s greatest feats of engineering – the
Snowy Mountains scheme. As in Vast, which began under
the sea, Conyngham’s submarine music is intensely
evocative – by turns turbulent or translucent – and the
synthesiser contributes sampled water-sounds to
enhance the effect.
The third and final movement, The Apostles / Cityscape,
marks a visual analogy between high-rise buildings
and a group of weathered sandstone monoliths off the
Victorian coast. But where a city teems with human
activity, a series of oceanic rock formations are by
definition an inhuman landscape. Conyngham’s music
allows the paradox of similarity and difference to stand,
beginning dreamily with a texture of shimmering strings.
The piano responds to each chord with its own series
of four chords. The music then releases a series of
liquid figures from the piano, followed by a high, limpid
passage of counterpoint for violins. The opening section
culminates in a characteristic chorale-like passage where
piano doubles wind and brass. Referring to the opening
of the movement, the chorale is built out of phrases of
four chords, answered by gentle undulations from muted
violins. The second half of the movement is given over
to frenetic, urban sounds (including some selfconsciously ‘electronic’ noises from the synthesiser).
The movement’s climax and conclusion brings together
aspects of both sections. The frenetic, urban pace
remains, but underpinning it is the four-note chorale
which represents the grandeur of the Apostles. A musical
gesture depicts the visual analogy which was the work’s
starting point.
GORDON KERRY ©2007
The orchestra for Monuments calls for three flutes (each doubling
piccolo and alto flute), two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets,
bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three
trumpets, two trombones, bass trombone, tuba, harp, celesta,
percussion, timpani, two string orchestras (placed ‘in stereo’ on
the stage).
Monuments was composed for the Hungarian-born pianist Tamás
Ungár, who premiered it with the Albany Symphony Orchestra
and conductor Geoffrey Simon in 1989.
8 | Sydney Symphony
Snowy-Geehi Tunnel
(The Snowy River Scheme)
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Sinfonia antartica (Symphony No.7)
Keynotes
Prelude (Andante maestoso)
Scherzo (Moderato – poco animando)
Landscape (Lento)
Intermezzo (Andante sostenuto)
Epilogue (Alla marcia moderato ma non troppo – Andante
maestoso)
Born Gloucestershire, 1872
Died London, 1958
John Bell, speaker
Penelope Mills, soprano
Female voices of Cantillation
Arguably England’s greatest symphonist, Ralph Vaughan
Williams was producing grand and powerful works
during his 70s and 80s; works that were both modern
and challenging. In this vein, Sinfonia antartica is seen by
many as heralding the beginning of that last great decade
of composition from 1949 until his death in 1958. Its first
performance in 1953, given by the Hallé Orchestra under
the direction of Sir John Barbirolli, was a great success.
Vaughan Williams proved himself time and again with
the scope of vision and imagination he brought to the
concept of the modern symphony.
Vaughan Williams had already written this symphony
over the period 1947–48 as the incidental music for the
Ealing film Scott of the Antarctic. This film, starring John
Mills as Robert Scott and directed by Charles Frend with
meticulous attention to historical detail, was a reverent
and serious examination of the tragic and ill-fated quest
to be the first man to the South Pole. Vaughan Williams
was to create, by musical means, the sense of desolation
and hostility, man pitted against pitiless nature. The
immediate success of his score can be judged on one
level by its winning of the first prize at the 1949 Prague
Film Festival.
While there is no doubt as to the pleasure that Vaughan
Williams took in the writing of film music (he created 11
scores from 1941 to 1956), not all of those scores became
symphonies. The story of Scott had drawn great and
passionate music from this most idealistic of composers.
This music was too good to lose. Following the grimness
of World War II, this symphony embodies the sense of
striving against odds and, whether winning or losing,
retaining a dignity and solemn pride. Indeed, Scott is
as much a symbol as a real man – and given Vaughan
9 | Sydney Symphony
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
The leading composer of his
generation, Ralph Vaughan
Williams played a key role
in the 20th-century revival
of British music. The Lark
Ascending for violin and
orchestra and his Fantasia
on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
are among his best-loved
concert works. Of his nine
symphonies – several of
which call for chorus and
solo voices – the audience
favourites include A London
Symphony (No.2) and
Symphony No.5.
His first film score was
composed when he was nearly
68. He went on to write music
for Scott of the Antarctic,
which inspired his Seventh
Symphony.
SINFONIA ANTARTICA
In a nod to his musical source,
Vaughan Williams named his
Seventh Symphony Sinfonia
antartica (Italian, hence
the ‘missing c’ in antartica).
Vaughan Williams uses the
orchestra – together with the
special colours of wordless
voices and wind machine – to
evoke the alien environment
of the Antarctic, the light
comedy of penguins at play,
the poignancy and heroism
of Scott’s expedition, and
‘the triumph of Nature over
adventure’.
The symphony was completed
in 1952 and premiered the
following year. In this
performance selections from
Scott’s journals are read
between each movement.
Williams’ interest in the struggle of Everyman against the
world, this symphony is an allegory. As Wilfrid Mellers
puts it in Vaughan Williams and the Vision of Albion, ‘If the
end is nirvana, or nothingness, this is a victory not for
evil, but for Nature’s neutrality.’
‘To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.’ Sinfonia
antartica returns us to a time of simple bravery and
honest endeavour, Vaughan Williams wistfully honouring
Scott’s ill-fated expedition with a musical mantle.
Listening Guide
The first movement, with its slowly rising chromatic
theme, is reminiscent of a grand curtain rising to reveal
a whiteness. Vaughan Williams creates a remarkably
‘foreign’ aural landscape, using piano, harp, xylophone,
vibraphone, glockenspiel and celeste. This constant tonal
shimmering is heightened by the addition of a wind
machine, female chorus and solo soprano. Her wordless
keening evokes the alien environment. Even the march
that occurs here has a false jauntiness.
The second movement is passingly light. Vaughan
Williams identifies the great Leviathans (whales) and
comic penguins through the use of grand low brass
chords and chattering woodwinds respectively. Even here,
there is no escaping the ‘alien’ motif of harp, keyboard
and tuned percussion arpeggios.
The third movement is possibly one of Vaughan
Williams’ grandest statements on the immutable power
of Nature. The density of the orchestration points to
the ‘motionless torrents’, crags and immensity of the
fortresses of ice that surmount the path to the Pole.
There is also a tonal familiarity in this work – a similarity
between this movement and Neptune from The Planets
by Vaughan Williams’ good friend Holst. Both are
attempting to convey the concept of timeless majesty,
beyond the comprehension and control of mere mortals.
This is done through a deft use of muted brass in a
grindingly measured Lento – and certainly, the powerful
chords from the organ are like blows of a giant’s fist,
halting the pilgrims’ progress.
The bulk of the music within the fourth movement
is concerned with the sacrifice of Oates (walking into
the whiteness, famously saying to his companions,
‘I may be some time…’) – and the thoughts of his wife
thousands of miles away in England. The use of solo
10 | Sydney Symphony
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1938)
oboe, with a typical pastoral ‘feel’ to the melody, and solo
violin (with an echo of The Lark Ascending) takes us into
Shropshire or Devon – quite at odds with the Antarctic
wilderness. However, this idyll is short lived and the
menacing theme from the first movement returns, with
more edge to it through the addition of
low bells and a harsher chromaticism. The oboe returns,
then all is closed with a low rumble from the double
basses.
With a crash of percussion, the last movement
shatters any sense of tranquillity. The struggle is not
over. Vaughan Williams brings all the themes that have
presented themselves throughout the symphony and
we are witness to the triumph of Nature over adventure.
The triplet figure that overwhelms the first movement
march denotes the blizzard that crushes the last hope of
the Scott expedition. Finally the opening theme returns,
with wind machine, female voices and soprano soloist –
the bodies of Scott’s party are clothed in white and taken
into the landscape. The symphony dies away with a
surprising gentleness – it is impossible to deny the
melancholy.
ADAPTED FROM A NOTE BY DAVID VIVIAN RUSSELL
SYMPHONY AUSTRALIA ©2000/2007
Sinfonia antartica calls for three flutes (one doubling piccolo),
two oboes and cor anglais, two clarinets and bass clarinet,
two bassoons and contrabassoon; four horns, three trumpets,
three trombones and tuba; timpani and percussion (xylophone,
vibraphone, side drum, tenor drum, glockenspiel, wind machine,
cymbal, gong, bass drum, triangle, suspended cymbal and bells);
harp, celeste, piano, organ and strings.
Sinfonia antartica was premiered on 14 January 1953, the Hallé
Orchestra conducted by Barbirolli. The first Australian
performance was given by the Sydney Symphony, soprano
Margaret Moore and the NSW Conservatorium Girls Choir in 1953
in a performance conducted by Eugene Goossens. The Sydney
Symphony’s only performance since then was in 1969, conducted
by Bernard Heinze.
11 | Sydney Symphony
Scott’s diary became a
popular parting gift to
soldiers during World
War I – and Ralph
Vaughan Williams, who
drove army ambulances
from the trenches to
hospitals, would
certainly have seen
these volumes in the
possession of the
wounded.
Vaughan Williams and Film Music
Although Vaughan Williams’ name is virtually
synonymous with lush English pastoral music – his Lark
Ascending, Tallis Fantasia, and Pastoral Symphony (the
latter damningly referred to as ‘a cow looking over a gate’
by Peter Warlock) being perhaps his best-loved works –
his was a musical life always seeking new languages and
boundaries. Descended from the august families of
Darwin and Wedgwood, he profited from a modest private
income to devote himself entirely to music. Editor of
the first ‘English Hymnal’, director of the Bach Choir, a
dedicated folksong collector, a student of Ravel and a
sensitive orchestrator, with nine varied and complex
symphonies to his name, he was a central figure on all
levels of English music-making during his life.
He composed 11 film scores, of which Scott of the
Antarctic (1947) was the seventh. By all accounts he found
the demands of the process exciting – Ursula Vaughan
Williams wrote that ‘he became fascinated by the splithair timings: a second of music meant exactly a second of
music and this was quite a new frame to musical thought.’
By the time of Scott of the Antarctic he was also experienced
enough to demand control of the use of all music and
sound effects on the film – and indeed, for the bleak
sound world of the Scott film, his choice of wordless
voices presented difficulties. The studio feared it would
obscure the dialogue. The composer held firm, however
and the chorus and soprano solo sections were used in
the film.
Herbert Ponting
Herbert George Ponting was born in 1870, and was one
of about a hundred applicants for the position of
photographer for Scott’s 1910 expedition. Styling himself
as ‘camera artist’, Ponting was by that time already an
internationally established photographer. Captain Scott
realised the importance of photographic coverage of
the expedition, not only for scientific purposes, but also
for sale to the press. To secure his services Ponting was
paid a pound more per week than the other ‘scientific’
crewmembers. By its nature, Ponting’s activities were set
apart from the others’; photographing the heavy work of
unloading the ship meant that he took no active part in
it, a fact which the crew was quick to note – when it was
12 | Sydney Symphony
The Ice Cave
In one of these bergs there
was a grotto. This, I decided,
should be the object of my
first excursion. It was about
a mile from the ship, and
though a lot of rough and
broken ice surrounded it,
I was able to get right up to
it. A fringe of long icicles
hung at the entrance of the
grotto, and passing under
these I was in the most
wonderful place imaginable.
From outside, the interior
appeared quite white and
colourless, but, once inside,
it was a lovely symphony
of blue and green. I made
many photographs in this
remarkable place – than
which I secured none more
beautiful the entire time
I was in the South. By almost
incredible good luck the
entrance to the cavern
framed a fine view of the
Terra Nova lying at the icefoot, a mile away.
HG PONTING
HERBERT PONTING
time to unload Ponting’s equipment, no volunteers
stepped forward to assist!
Ponting was totally devoted to his mission, and spent
all the available daylight hours taking photographs.
When the permanent night of the Antarctic Winter fell,
Ponting focused on life in the hut at Cape Evans. With
the coming of summer 1911/12, having photographed
the polar party heading southwards, Ponting’s work was
done. Terra Nova arrived to supply the main expedition
party in January 1912, and Ponting departed for New
Zealand. Scott and his colleagues were still marching
for the Pole.
After his return to England, Ponting undertook lecture
tours, and released the silent film footage he had taken
during the voyage. The disastrous end of the expedition
drew attention to his work, but interest inevitably fell
away with the outbreak of World War I. Moreover, to his
dismay Ponting found that Scott had signed agreements
regarding his images with various newspapers, severely
limiting the possibilities for him to profit from his work.
Later in life he tried to market several inventions
(including a puncture-proof inner tube for cars) without
success. His career as a photographer stalled, and the last
years of his life were spent unhappy and disillusioned.
He died in 1935.
HERBERT PONTING
The ice cave
Photography in the Antarctic
That the images projected in tonight’s concert exist at
all is a miracle. All had to be painstakingly set up, posed
and shot. The equipment required to take them was
so bulky that Ponting had to haul it about on a sled;
taking a spontaneous picture simply was not feasible.
HERBERT PONTING
The ‘Furious Fifties’ – Terra Nova in
a gale
Terra Nova pauses in the ice pack
13 | Sydney Symphony
HERBERT PONTING
Cold conditions rendered every part of the process more
difficult – ‘non-freezing’ oil actually did freeze in these
extreme conditions, seizing up camera shutters and other
moving parts.
Simple actions could easily go awry. Ponting wrote, ‘Often
when my fingers touched metal they became frostbitten.
Such a frostbite feels exactly like a burn. Once, thoughtlessly,
I held a camera screw for a moment in my mouth. It froze
instantly to my lips, and took the skin off them when
I removed it. On another occasion, my tongue came into
contact with a metal part of one of my cameras, whilst
moistening my lips as I was focussing. It froze fast
instantaneously; and to release myself I had to jerk it away,
leaving the skin of the end of my tongue sticking to the
camera…’
Condensation proved a major technical problem – simply
breathing on a lens in the open air covered it with a film
of ice, which had to be thawed off. Ponting learned to store
his cameras outdoors; the moment they were brought
in, they would start dripping with moisture. Likewise,
photographic plates were brought indoors in stages, taking
two days. This was the only method to prevent their being
instantly spoiled by the sudden change of temperature,
and it still did not guarantee an undamaged photograph.
There were several accidents – Ponting was nearly caught
on pack ice when several killer whales breached around
him. On another occasion ice disintegrated beneath him,
and only a dash for harder surface saved him and his
equipment. Several crewmembers also were injured posing
for photographs, most notably Thomas Clissold, expedition
cook, who fell from the summit of the ‘Matterhorn’ iceberg
moments after his photograph had been taken – knocked
unconscious, he was incapacitated for several weeks.
HERBERT PONTING
Ponting films the bow breaking
through ice
The ‘Matterhorn’ berg, with Mt Erebus in the background
14 | Sydney Symphony
The Scott Expedition
By 1909, the South Pole was regarded as the last frontier
for exploration on the surface of the Earth. Robert Falcon
Scott’s second expedition to the Antarctic was intended
to plant the Union Jack at the Pole, as well as carry out
scientific research. His converted whaling ship, the
Terra Nova, departed New Zealand on 29 November 1910.
After encountering very heavy weather on the southward
journey, the ship navigated pack ice for three weeks.
Arriving at Cape Evans on 4 January 1911, Scott
established his base camp, and set about his study
program, and the laying of supply depots for the polar
party. This party of five arrived at the Pole on 17 January
1912, to find that Roald Amundsen’s rival Norwegian party
had camped there about a month previously. Scott and
his four companions perished on the return journey.
His body, with those of Henry Bowers and Edward
Wilson, was found in their tent, six months after their
death. Alongside them were their journals, final letters,
their small camera, and a sled of geological samples they
had collected en route.
Scott’s last writings became a template for English
self-sacrifice and courage. His eloquent diary was a
best-seller; the poignant story of Oates leaving the tent
so that his companions might survive entered the
pantheon of English heroism. In English eyes, the
noble failure of the expedition far eclipsed Amundsen’s
success. Scott’s later biographers found plenty to criticise,
however. Why did Scott take four companions on the
final push, when supplies had been laid in for only
three? Why did he persist in dragging 14 kilograms of
rock samples on the return journey, even as his team
succumbed to serious frostbite? Ealing Studio’s lavish
1948 film adaptation raised these same questions,
depicting Scott’s misguided faith in rudimentary motor
sledges, and implying that Amundsen’s expedition
was much more professionally organised. The film is
a celebration of British team spirit, as well as a criticism
of its obvious limitations – Scott’s best friends follow
their flawed leader unquestioningly and pay the ultimate
price. Whatever the conclusions drawn, Scott’s writings,
Ponting’s images, and the heroic pathos of this story,
remain powerful elements to conjure with.
15 | Sydney Symphony
Twenty, fifty, a hundred,
five hundred years
hence, the story of the
Immortal Five who
perished after
conquering the South
Pole will inspire our
youth just as it does
today.
HG PONTING
MORE MUSIC
Selected Discography
Broadcast Diary
MONUMENTS
Tamás Ungár (piano and DX7) with the London
Symphony Orchestra and conductor Geoffrey Simon
(Also includes Southern Cross – Concerto for violin
and piano)
ABC CLASSIC FM 92.9
CALA CACD 1008
Sat 7 April 12.05pm
SINFONIA ANTARTICA
RUSSIAN FIRE AND FURY (2006)
Sir Adrian Boult’s recordings of Vaughan Williams
are legendary for their insight – the two were close
collaborators. His boxed set of symphonies,
conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra,
features a fine Antarctic Symphony with Sir John
Gielgud reading the movement superscriptions.
Mon 9 April 1pm
April
Jaap van Zweden conductor
Julian Rachlin violin
Mussorgsky, Shostakovich, Rimsky-Korsakov
BEETHOVEN’S PASTORAL (2001)
Osmo Vänskä conductor
EMI CLASSICS 73924 (MONO)
Mon 16 April 1pm
The same orchestra with Bernard Haitink presents
an engagingly different perspective.
AN ALPINE SYMPHONY (2000)
EMI CLASSICS 86026
Wed 18 April 8pm
Donald Runnicles conducts R. Strauss
ASHKENAZY CONDUCTS RACHMANINOV (2006)
SYDNEY SYMPHONY: LIVE RECORDINGS
FROM THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE
Strauss and Schubert
R. Strauss Four Last Songs; Schubert Symphony No.8
(Unfinished); J. Strauss II Blue Danube Waltz
Gianluigi Gelmetti (cond), Ricarda Merbeth (sop)
Merlyn Quaife soprano, Steve Davislim baritone
Alexey Yemtsov piano, Cantillation
Webcast Diary
SSO1
Glazunov and Shostakovich
Glazunov The Seasons; Shostakovich Symphony No.9
Alexander Lazarev (conductor)
In 2006 selected Sydney Symphony concerts
were recorded for webcast by Telstra BigPond.
These can be viewed at:
http://sydneysymphony.bigpondmusic.com.
SSO2
Further Exploration
BOOKS
RVW: A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams by Ursula
Vaughan Williams. Oxford University Press, 1964.
The Great White South by Herbert G. Ponting.
Duckworth and Company, 1950.
(With thanks to Elizabeth Johnston)
Scott of the Antarctic by David Crane. Harper Collins
Publishers, 2005.
The Photographs of HG Ponting by Beau Riffenburgh
and Liz Cruwys. Discovery Gallery, 1998.
(With thanks to Rory Jeffes)
FILM
Scott of the Antarctic.
Directed by Charles Frend.
90 Degrees South: With Scott to the Antarctic.
Directed by Herbert Ponting.
(With thanks to Elizabeth Johnston)
16 | Sydney Symphony
sydneysymphony.com
Visit the Sydney Symphony online for concert
information, podcasts, and to read your program book in
advance of the concert.
Acknowledgements
Herbert Ponting images courtesy of the Scott Polar
Research Institute, University of Cambridge, UK.
The Sydney Symphony gratefully acknowledges the
assistance of:
Scott Polar Research Institute,
Cambridge UK
Snowy Hydro Limited
Sydney Opera House
Corbis Australia Pty. Ltd.
AV Sound Productions
Tony David Cray
Jonathan Jeffes
Elizabeth Johnston
75 YEARS: HISTORICAL SNAPSHOT
Accident or inevitability?
Look at the picture of a forerunner of
today’s Sydney Symphony, and contrast it
with what you see on the stage in front of
you. Then use your aural imagination:
could that small group of players have
sounded anything like what we think of
as an ‘orchestra’? Probably not. But an
anniversary stimulates the historical
imagination.
Celebrating 75 years of ‘the Sydney
Symphony Orchestra’ stresses continuity.
It’s arbitrary, in a way. The name goes
back further, to the group that rehearsed
over a fish shop in George St, between
1908 and 1914. One of its organisers was
George Plummer, and it was not until
1937 that the name ‘Sydney Symphony
Orchestra’ was bought from him, by
Charles Moses, General Manager of the
Australian Broadcasting Commission.
The ‘real’ history of the Sydney Symphony
might be said to begin when the ABC
committed itself to providing Sydney with
a permanent orchestra of a size adequate
for the symphonic repertoire.
That was later in the 1930s. So our
historical photo really belongs to the prehistory of Sydney’s symphony orchestra.
Nevertheless, the establishment of the
Australian Broadcasting Commission, in
1932, is a milestone. As Phillip Sametz writes
in his 1992 history of the orchestra, Play On!,
‘There is no story of the Sydney Symphony
Orchestra that is not a story of the ABC.’
When that photo was taken, the new
medium of radio had a voracious appetite
for ‘live’ music. Symphonic music? Some,
but not much. In 1932 the new ABC
enlarged the studio ensembles it had taken
over in Sydney and Melbourne from 15 to
24 players. Was this the beginning of a
commitment to an ABC Sydney Symphony
Orchestra? Only hindsight gives a sense of
inevitability to the story.
17 | Sydney Symphony
Some saw in broadcasting a possibility
of raising public taste and awareness of
the ‘best’, including music. And they longed
for Sydney to have a permanent orchestra
that could represent that ‘best’. It was
an accident, in many ways, that these
aspirations combined to make public
concerts, as well as broadcast music, a
dominant activity of the ABC. So the story
of the Sydney Symphony begins…
David Garrett, a historian and former programmer
for Australia’s symphony orchestras, is studying
the history of the ABC as a musical organisation.
This is the first of a series of glimpses of the
Sydney Symphony’s history to appear in concert
programs through 2007.
The Australian Broadcasting Commission’s first studio
orchestra, dressed formally for an evening broadcast –
the ‘done thing’ in the early days of radio
THE ARTISTS
Richard Mills conductor
In recent years Richard Mills has pursued a diverse career
as a composer and conductor, which has seen him working
with a large number of the nation’s music organisations.
Richard Mills studied with Edmund Rubbra (composition)
and Gilbert Webster (percussion) at London’s Guildhall
School of Music, where he won the Saltzman Prize. Since
then he has also been recipient of the Maggs Award (1982),
the Don Banks Music Fellowship (1995), and in 1999 was
awarded the Order of Australia.
He made his debut as an opera conductor at Opera
Queensland with The Magic Flute. Now, through his work
with West Australian Opera, he has a large repertoire of
standard works. He also has a reputation for conducting
contemporary opera and his own works, which include an
opera of Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll and the
award-winning Batavia.
His own music has found wide acceptance and popularity
with musicians and the concert-going public. His works
are regularly performed throughout the world and his CD
recording Richard Mills Orchestral Works with the Queensland
Symphony Orchestra has become a best seller on the ABC
Classics label. Compositions range from Concerto for Violin
and Viola, a flute concerto commissioned by James Galway,
Earth Poem-Sky, music for the ballet Snugglepot and Cuddlepie,
and Fantastic Pantomimes written for the Melbourne
Symphony’s tour of Japan. Commissions for the Sydney
Symphony include Tenebrae (1992), Emblems (2000) and
Totemic Journeys, celebrating Australia’s Centenary of
Federation.
He has also been commissioned to write music for the
1982 Commonwealth Games, the 2000 Olympic Games,
and the Australian Bicentenary re-orchestration of Charles
Williams’ Majestic Fanfare (the ABC news theme).
As an academic, Richard Mills has been Lecturer
in Composition and Conducting at the Queensland
Conservatorium of Music, and Visiting Fellow at the
University of Melbourne School of Music. Currently, he is
Artistic Director of the West Australian Opera, a post he has
held since 1997, and he has recently taken up the post of
Artistic Consultant with Orchestra Victoria.
18 | Sydney Symphony
John Bell speaker
Michael Kieran Harvey piano
John Bell is one of Australia’s most influential
theatre personalities. His credits include work
for the Old Tote Theatre Company, the major
state theatre companies, and five years with
the Royal Shakespeare Company in Great
Britain. As co-founder of the Nimrod Theatre
Company, he presented many premiere and
landmark productions of Australian plays in
the 1970s and 1980s, and began the evolution
of an Australian Shakespeare style.
In 1990 he founded the Bell Shakespeare
Company, where his roles have included
Shylock, Richard III, Macbeth, Malvolio,
Coriolanus, Leontes, Prospero, King Lear and
Ulysses. In 2002 his performance of Richard
III earned him a Helpmann Award for
Best Actor.
The Universities of Newcastle (1994),
Sydney (1996) and New South Wales (2006)
have each awarded him an Honorary
Doctorate of Letters. He has been honoured
with the OBE and the AM, and in 1997 he
was named one of Australia’s National Living
Treasures.
Last season John Bell directed Romeo and
Juliet, and revived the role of Prospero for
Bell Shakespeare Company, and Captain Ahab
in Moby Dick for Glen Street. This year he
directs Macbeth and The Government Inspector
by Gogol.
Michael Kieran Harvey was born in Sydney and
studied in Canberra, Sydney, and at the Liszt
Academy, Budapest. His repertoire is diverse:
he has worked with conductors such as Edo de
Waart, Reinbert de Leeuw, Diego Masson and
Kristjan Järvi, and collaborations include Jon
Lord (Deep Purple), Keith Emerson (Emerson,
Lake and Palmer), Absolute Ensemble and
Paul Grabowsky (Australian Art Orchestra).
He regularly performs with the Australian
symphony orchestras, appearing most recently
with the Sydney Symphony in 2005, performing
Scriabin’s piano concerto.
He has promoted the works of Australian
composers, internationally and within
Australia, premiering new concertos by Vine,
Westlake, Grabowsky, Joseph and Conyngham,
and recording major Australian works. In
Australia he has premiered important works
by international contemporaries, and he has
performed and recorded most of Messiaen’s
piano repertoire to critical acclaim, including
the entire Catalogue d’oiseaux.
His many awards include the Grand Prix
in the Ivo Pogorelich Piano Competition,
the Debussy Medal (Paris), four Australian
Mo awards for best classical artist, and the
Australian Government’s Centenary Medal
for services to Australian music. He is Adjunct
Professor at the Tasmanian Conservatorium,
Visiting Artist at the Victorian College of the
Arts, and Fellow of the Faculty of Music,
Melbourne University.
John Bell appears by arrangement with Bell
Shakespeare Company.
19 | Sydney Symphony
Penelope Mills soprano
Cantillation
Penelope Mills holds degrees from the Royal
Northern College of Music (Manchester) and
the Sydney Conservatorium. Since returning to
Australia, she has performed extensively with
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Sydney Concert
Orchestra, SBS Youth Orchestra, Willoughby
Symphony and the Royal Melbourne
Philharmonic Society. Her repertoire has
included Carmina Burana, Bach’s B Minor Mass,
Poulenc’s Gloria, Messiah, Beethoven’s Ninth
Symphony and Choral Fantasia, Mozart and
Fauré Requiems, Vaughan Williams’ Pilgrim’s
Journey and Dona nobis pacem, Mozart’s Mass
in C, CPE Bach’s Magnificat, Pergolesi’s Stabat
Mater and Vivaldi’s Gloria, as well as Norholm’s
Impressions of the Little Mermaid (Sydney Festival),
works by Saariaho (Seymour Group), and
The Earth that Fire Touches by John Peterson.
Equally at home on the operatic stage, her
roles include Elettra (Idomeneo), Euridice
(Monteverdi’s Orfeo) and Venus (Dardanus) for
Pinchgut Opera; Fiordiligi, Gretel and First Lady
(Pacific Opera); Tatyana (Onegin, Stowe Opera,
UK); and Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Nedda (I
Pagliacci) and Zerlina (Don Giovanni) for RNCM.
Recent engagements include her American
debut recital in Washington DC. This season
her engagements include Bach’s St John Passion
with the Queensland Orchestra, an Easter concert
with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and
Messiah with Sydney Philharmonia. Last year
she made her Sydney Symphony debut in
La Rondine.
Cantillation is a chorus of professional
singers – an ensemble of fine voices with
the speed, agility and flexibility of a chamber
orchestra. Formed in 2001 by Antony Walker
and Alison Johnston, it has since been busy
in the concert hall, opera theatre and
recording studio.
Performance highlights have included
Adams’ Harmonium and Transmigration
of Souls, the Australian premiere of
Gubaidulina’s Now Always Snow, Edwards’
Star Chant, Haydn’s Nelson Mass and
Jonathan Mills’ Sandakan Threnody (all with
the Sydney Symphony); Butterley’s Spell of
Creation, Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, tours
for Musica Viva and concerts with Emma
Kirkby and the Orchestra of the Antipodes.
Recordings include Allegri Miserere – Sacred
Music of the Renaissance, Fauré’s Requiem,
Carmina Burana, Prayer for Peace, Messiah,
Silent Night, Ye Banks and Braes and Magnificat
with Emma Kirkby. Last year Cantillation
recorded Mozart’s Requiem and Bach
choruses.
As well as opera appearances (most
recently Idomeneo with Pinchgut Opera),
Cantillation has sung for the Dalai Lama,
appeared with Andrea Bocelli, recorded and
performed for the Rugby World Cup, and
recorded soundtracks for several movies.
Recent collaborations with the Sydney
Symphony have included the Shock of the
20 | Sydney Symphony
Paul Stanhope chorusmaster
New concerts and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé
with Gianluigi Gelmetti, and The Bells by
Rachmaninov with Vladimir Ashkenazy. In
February Cantillation appeared in Symphony
at the Movies with Michael Parkinson, and
sang Brahms’ German Requiem in the
Orchestra’s opening gala concert.
Antony Walker music director
Alison Johnston manager
Paul Stanhope chorusmaster
Cathy Davis repetiteur
SOPRANOS
ALTOS
Catherine Bryant
Kate Dowman
Anna Fraser
Danielle Grant
Tina Harris
Sarah Jones
Alison Morgan
Anna Sandstrom
Georgina Andrews
Jo Burton
Laila Engle
Kerith Fowles
Sue Harris
Judy Herskovits
Desiree van Loon
Rose Saunders
MEZZO-SOPRANOS
Anne Farrell
Karen Finch
Amanda Hamilton
Amanda Harris
Natalie Shea
Helen Sherman
Nicole Thomson
Emma Zampieri
21 | Sydney Symphony
Paul Stanhope has worked with Cantillation
on numerous occasions since 2004, both
as chorusmaster and conductor in live
performances and recordings. In 2005 he
was guest conductor with Cantillation in a
Musica Viva CountryWide tour of Northern
NSW and also in the Sydney Symphony’s
Shock of the New concerts in the same year.
Last year he was appointed musical director
of the Sydney Chamber Choir, taking over
from its founding director Nicholas Routley.
In addition to this role, his conducting
activities in 2006 included a program of
contemporary works with the Sonic Art
Ensemble and a guest appearance with the
Sydney Children’s Choir.
Paul Stanhope is, perhaps, better known
to Sydney audiences as a composer. His
Fantasia on a Theme by Vaughan Williams won
the 2004 Tōru Takemitsu Composition Prize
and was performed by the Sydney Symphony
in 2005 to great acclaim. He is currently
working on new pieces for Musica Viva and
the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
THE SYDNEY SYMPHONY
Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CBO, Governor of New South Wales
JOHN MARMARAS
PATRON
Founded in 1932, the Sydney Symphony
has evolved into one of the world’s finest
orchestras as Sydney has become one of
the world’s great cities. Resident at the
iconic Sydney Opera House where the
Sydney Symphony gives more than 100
performances each year, the Orchestra also
performs concerts in a variety of venues
around Sydney and regional New South
Wales. International tours to Europe, Asia
and the USA have earned the Orchestra
world-wide recognition for artistic
excellence.
Critical to the success of the Sydney
Symphony has been the leadership given
by its former Chief Conductors including:
Sir Eugene Goossens, Nikolai Malko,
Dean Dixon, Willem van Otterloo, Louis
Frémaux, Sir Charles Mackerras, Stuart
22 | Sydney Symphony
Challender and Edo de Waart. Also
contributing to the outstanding success
of the Orchestra have been collaborations
with legendary figures such as George
Szell, Sir Thomas Beecham, Otto
Klemperer and Igor Stravinsky.
Maestro Gianluigi Gelmetti, whose
appointment followed a ten year
relationship with the Orchestra as Guest
Conductor, is now in his fourth year as
Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of
the Sydney Symphony, a position he holds
in tandem with that of Music Director
at the prestigious Rome Opera.
The Sydney Symphony is reaping the
rewards of Maestro Gelmetti’s directorship
through the quality of sound, intensity
of playing and flexibility between styles.
His particularly strong rapport with
French and German repertoire is
complemented by his innovative
programming in the Shock of the
New concerts and performances of
contemporary Australian music.
The Sydney Symphony’s award-winning
Education Program is central to the
Orchestra’s commitment to the future
of live symphonic music, developing
audiences and engaging the participation
of young people. The Sydney Symphony
maintains an active commissioning
program promoting the work of Australian
composers and in 2005 Liza Lim was
appointed Composer-in-Residence for
three years.
In 2007, the Orchestra celebrates its
75th anniversary and the milestone
achievements during its distinguished
history.
MUSICIANS
Gianluigi Gelmetti
Chief Conductor and
Artistic Director
Michael Dauth
Dene Olding
Chair of Concertmaster
supported by the Sydney
Symphony Board and Council
Chair of Concertmaster
supported by the Sydney
Symphony Board and Council
First Violins
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
Second Violins
First Violins
01 Kirsten Williams
Second Violins
01 Marina Marsden
Associate Concertmaster
02 Fiona Ziegler
Ian & Jennifer Burton Chair
of Assistant Concertmaster
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
Julie Batty
Gu Chen
Amber Davis
Rosalind Horton
Jennifer Hoy
Jennifer Johnson
Georges Lentz
Nicola Lewis
Alexandra Mitchell
Moon Design Chair of Violin
12 Léone Ziegler
Sophie Cole
Principal
02 Susan Dobbie
Associate Principal
03 Emma West
Assistant Principal
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
Pieter Bersée
Maria Durek
Emma Hayes
Shuti Huang
Stan Kornel
Benjamin Li
Nicole Masters
Philippa Paige
Biyana Rozenblit
Maja Verunica
Guest Musicians
Emily Qin
Rosemary Curtin
Lamorna Nightingale
First Violin#
Viola
Flute
Alexander Norton
Nicole Forsyth
Celia Craig
First Violin#
Viola
Oboe
Martin Silverton
Andrew Wilson
Casey Rippon
First Violin
Cello
Horn
Leigh Middenway
Janine Ryan
Alexander Love
First Violin
Cello
Horn
Thomas Dundas
Nick Metcalfe
Joshua Clarke
Second Violin
Cello
Trumpet
Belinda Jezek
Brian Nixon
Second Violin
Josephine
Costantino
Alexandra D’Elia
Cello
Philip South
Second Violin#
Sally Maer
Percussion
Narine Melconian
Cello
Catherine Davis
Second Violin
Jennifer Druery
Celeste
Anya Muston
Double Bass#
Amy Johansen
Second Violin
Lauren Brandon
Organ
Jennifer Curl
Double Bass
Viola#
23 | Sydney Symphony
Percussion
# Contract musician
† Fellowship holder
MUSICIANS
Violas
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
01
07
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
02
03
04
05
06
07
Harp
Flutes
02
03
Cellos
Double Basses
01
08
01
Violas
01 Roger Benedict
Cellos
01 Catherine Hewgill
Principal
02 Anne Louise Comerford
Assistant Principal
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
Robyn Brookfield
Sandro Costantino
Jane Hazelwood
Graham Hennings
Mary McVarish
Justine Marsden
Leonid Volovelsky
Felicity Wyithe
24 | Sydney Symphony
Double Basses
01 Kees Boersma
Principal
Brian and Rosemary
White Chair of Principal
Double Bass
02 Nathan Waks
Associate Principal
03 Yvette Goodchild
Piccolo
Principal
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
Kristy Conrau
Fenella Gill
Leah Lynn
Timothy Nankervis
Elizabeth Neville
Adrian Wallis
David Wickham
02 Alex Henery
Principal
03 Andrew Raciti
Associate Principal
04 Neil Brawley
Principal Emeritus
05
06
07
08
David Campbell
Steven Larson
Richard Lynn
David Murray
Harp
Piccolo
Louise Johnson
Rosamund Plummer
Mulpha Australia Chair
of Principal Harp
Principal
Flutes
01 Janet Webb
Principal
02 Emma Sholl
Mr Harcourt Gough
Chair of Associate
Principal Flute
03 Carolyn Harris
MUSICIANS
Oboes
01
Cor Anglais
02
Bassoons
01
02
03
03
04
05
02
03
Clarinets
Bass Clarinet
01
02
03
Contrabassoon
Horns
01
02
01
02
03
Bass Trombone
Tuba
Timpani
Trumpets
Trombones
01
Percussion
01
01
04
02
Piano
02
Oboes
01 Diana Doherty
Andrew Kaldor and
Renata Kaldor AO Chair
of Principal Oboe
02 Shefali Pryor
Associate Principal
Cor Anglais
Bassoons
01 Matthew Wilkie
Principal
02 Roger Brooke
Associate Principal
03 Fiona McNamara
Contrabassoon
01 Noriko Shimada
Alexandre Oguey
Principal
Principal
Clarinets
01 Lawrence Dobell
Principal
02 Francesco Celata
Associate Principal
03 Christopher Tingay
Bass Clarinet
Horns
01 Robert Johnson
Principal
02 Ben Jacks
Principal
03 Geoff O’Reilly
Principal 3rd
04 Lee Bracegirdle
05 Marnie Sebire
Craig Wernicke
Principal
25 | Sydney Symphony
Trumpets
01 Daniel Mendelow
Principal
02 Paul Goodchild
Associate Principal
03 John Foster
04 Anthony Heinrichs
Bass Trombone
Percussion
Christopher Harris
01 Rebecca Lagos
Trust Foundation Chair
of Principal Bass
Trombone
02 Colin Piper
Tuba
Steve Rossé
Trombone
01 Ronald Prussing
NSW Department of
State and Regional
Development Chair of
Principal Trombone
02 Scott Kinmont
Associate Principal
03 Nick Byrne
Rogen International
Chair of Trombone
Principal
Timpani
01 Richard Miller
Principal
02 Brian Nixon
Assistant Principal
Timpani (contract)
Principal
Piano
Josephine Allan
Principal (contract)
SALUTE
PRINCIPAL PARTNER
GOVERNMENT PARTNERS
The Company is assisted by the
NSW Government through Arts NSW
PLATINUM PARTNER
GOLD PARTNERS
26 | Sydney Symphony
MAJOR PARTNERS
SILVER PARTNERS
REGIONAL TOUR PARTNERS
BRONZE PARTNERS
MARKETING PARTNERS
PATRONS
Australia Post
Beyond Technology Consulting
Bimbadgen Estate Wines
Goldman Sachs JBWere
J. Boag & Son
Q-Med (Sweden) Australia Pty Ltd.
Vittoria Coffee
Avant Card
Blue Arc Group
Digital Eskimo
Lindsay Yates and Partners
2MBS 102.5 –
The Sydney Symphony gratefully
acknowledges the many music
lovers who contribute to the
Orchestra by becoming Symphony
Patrons. Every donation plays an
important part in the success of the
Sydney Symphony’s wide ranging
programs.
Sydney’s Fine Music Station
The Sydney Symphony applauds the leadership role
our Partners play and their commitment to excellence,
innovation and creativity.
27 | Sydney Symphony
DIRECTORS’ CHAIRS
A leadership program which links
Australia’s top performers in the
executive and musical worlds.
For information about the Directors’
Chairs program, please contact
Corporate Relations on (02) 8215 4614.
01
02
03
04
05
07
08
09
10
11
01
Alan Jones, Managing
Director Mulpha Australia with
Mulpha Australia Chair of
Principal Harp, Louise Johnson
05
NSW Department of State
and Regional Development
Chair of Principal Trombone,
Ronald Prussing
09
Stuart O’Brien, Managing
Director Moon Design with
Moon Design Chair of Violin,
Alexandra Mitchell
02
Mr Harcourt Gough Chair of
Associate Principal Flute,
Emma Sholl
06
Brian and Rosemary White
Chair of Principal Double Bass,
Kees Boersma
10
Ian and Jennifer Burton Chair
of Assistant Concertmaster,
Fiona Ziegler
03
Sandra and Paul Salteri Chair of
Artistic Director Education,
Richard Gill OAM
07
Board and Council of the
Sydney Symphony supports
Chairs of Concertmaster
Michael Dauth and Dene Olding
11
Andrew Kaldor and
Renata Kaldor AO Chair of
Principal Oboe, Diana Doherty
04
Jonathan Sweeney,
Managing Director Trust with
Trust Foundation Chair of
Principal Bass Trombone,
Christopher Harris
08
Gerald Tapper, Managing
Director Rogen International with
Rogen International
Chair of Trombone, Nick Byrne
28 | Sydney Symphony
06
PLAYING YOUR PART
The Sydney Symphony gratefully acknowledges the music lovers who donate
to the Orchestra each year. Every gift plays an important part in ensuring our
continued artistic excellence and helping to sustain important education and
regional touring programs. Because we are now offering free programs and
space is limited we are unable to list donors who give between $100 and $499 –
please visit sydneysymphony.com for a list of all our patrons.
Patron Annual
Donations Levels
Maestri $10,000 and above
Virtuosi $5000 to $9999
Soli $2500 to $4999
Tutti $1000 to $2499
Supporters $500 to $999
To discuss giving
opportunities, please call
Caroline Mark on
(02) 8215 4619.
Maestri
Brian Abel & the late Ben
Gannon AO °
Geoff & Vicki Ainsworth *
Mr Robert O Albert AO *‡
Alan & Christine Bishop ° §
Sandra & Neil Burns *
Mr Ian & Mrs Jennifer Burton °
The Clitheroe Foundation *
Patricia M. Dixson *
Penny Edwards ° *
Mr J O Fairfax AO *
Dr Bruno & Mrs Rhonda
Giuffre *
Mr Harcourt Gough §
Mr David Greatorex AO &
Mrs Deirdre Greatorex §
Mr Andrew Kaldor &
Mrs Renata Kaldor AO §
H. Kallinikos Pty Ltd §
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Mr B G O’Conor §
The Paramor Family *
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Anonymous (1) *
Virtuosi
Mrs Antoinette Albert §
Mr Robert & Mrs L Alison Carr §
Mr John C Conde AO §
Mr John Curtis §
Irwin Imhof in Memory of
Herta Imhof °‡
Mr Stephen Johns §
Mr & Mrs Gilles T Kryger ° §
Helen Lynch AM °
Mr E J Merewether & Mrs
T Merewether OAM *
Miss Rosemary Pryor *
Bruce & Joy Reid Foundation *
John Roarty in memory of
June Roarty
Rodney Rosenblum AM & Sylvia
Rosenblum §
29 | Sydney Symphony
Mrs Helen Selle §
Dr James Smith §
David Smithers AM & family §
Michael & Mary Whelan Trust §
Anonymous (2) §
Soli
Ms Jan Bowen *
Mr Chum Darvall §
Ian Dickson & Reg Holloway *
Hilmer Family Trust §
Mr Paul Hotz ° §
Mr Rory Jeffes
Paul Lancaster & Raema
Prowse ° §
Mrs Joan MacKenzie §
Mr James & Mrs Elsie Moore °
Ms Kathleen Parer
Ms Gabrielle Trainor
Mr R Wingate §
Anonymous (2) §
Tutti
Mr C R Adamson ° §
Mr Henry W Aram §
Mr David Barnes °
Mrs F M Buckle °
Debby Cramer & Bill Caukill °
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Mr & Mrs J B Fairfax AM §
Mr Ian Fenwicke & Prof
Neville Wills §
Mrs Dorit & Mr William
Franken ° §
Mr & Mrs J R W Furber §
Mr Arshak & Ms Sophie
Galstaun §
In Memory of Hetty Gordon §
Mrs Akiko Gregory §
Miss Janette Hamilton °‡
Mr A & Mrs L Heyko-Porebski °
Dr Paul Hutchins &
Ms Margaret Moore °
Mrs Margaret Jack
Mr John W Kaldor AM §
Mr & Mrs E Katz §
Mr Andrew Korda &
Ms Susan Pearson §
Mr Justin Lam §
Mr Gary Linnane §
Ms Karen Loblay §
Mr & Mrs R. Maple-Brown §
Mrs Alexandra Martin & the
late Mr Lloyd Martin AM §
Justice Jane Mathews §
Mrs Mora Maxwell ° §
Judith McKernan °
Mrs Barbara McNulty OBE °
Mr & Mrs John Morschel
Mr R A Oppen §
Mr Robert Orrell §
Dr Timothy Pascoe §
Ms Robin Potter §
Mr Nigel Price §
Mr & Mrs Ernest Rapee §
Mrs Patricia H Reid °
Mr Brian Russell & Ms Irina
Singleman
Gordon & Jacqueline
Samuels ° §
Ms Juliana Schaeffer §
Robyn Smiles §
Derek & Patricia Smith §
Catherine Stephen °
Mr Fred & Mrs Dorothy Street §
Mr Georges & Mrs Marliese
Teitler §
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Tribe °
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Jill Wran §
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Anonymous (10) §
Supporters over $500
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Gray
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John Augustus °
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Borgelt
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Cornberg §
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Rev H & Mrs M Herbert ° *
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Lazar §
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Margaret Lederman °
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Erna & Gerry Levy AM *
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Love
Mr Matthew McInnes §
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Moon Design
Mrs R H O’Conor
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Pilton
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Mrs B Raghavan °
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Dr K D Reeve AM *
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In memory of H. St.P Scarlett ° *
Blue Mountain Concert
Society Inc °
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Miss Amelia Trott
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The Hon M. Turnbull MP &
Mrs L. Hughes Turnbull
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Ronald Walledge °
Louise Walsh & David Jordon
Mr Geoff Wood and
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Miss Jenny Wu
Mr Michael Skinner &
Ms Sandra Yates AO
Anonymous (12)
°
*
‡
§
Allegro Program supporter
Emerging Artist Fund supporter
Stuart Challender Fund supporter
Orchestra Fund supporter
BEHIND THE SCENES
Sydney Symphony Board
CHAIRMAN
David Maloney
Libby Christie
John Conde AO
John Curtis
Stephen Johns
Andrew Kaldor
Goetz Richter
David Smithers AM
Gabrielle Trainor
What’s on the cover?
During the 2007 season Sydney Symphony program covers will
feature photos that celebrate the Orchestra’s history over the
past 75 years. The photographs on the covers will change
approximately once a month, and if you subscribe to one of our
concert series you will be able to collect a set over the course of
the year. Foyer displays at our concerts will also feature
photographs from our recent and early history.
COVER PHOTOGRAPHS (clockwise from top left):
2006 Sydney Symphony Fellows (Martin Penicka, Alexis Kenny, Lauren Brigden,
Alex Norton, Victoria Jacono and Damien Eckersley); Pinchas Zukerman with
Willem van Otterloo, 1970s; SSO Children’s concert, 1965; SSO Family Concert
– Sandy Scott sings from the stalls of the Sydney Opera House, 1981; painting
from the Education Program’s 2005 art competition; Alfred Brendel gives a
piano masterclass, 1960s.
30 | Sydney Symphony
Sydney Symphony Staff
MARKETING AND
CUSTOMER RELATIONS
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Libby Christie
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT
DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND
MANAGEMENT
Deborah Byers
CUSTOMER RELATIONS
Aernout Kerbert
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Julian Boram
ARTISTIC OPERATIONS
DIRECTOR OF ARTISTIC OPERATIONS
Wolfgang Fink
Publicity
DIRECTOR OF ORCHESTRA
ACTING DEPUTY ORCHESTRA
MANAGER
Greg Low
PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER
Imogen Corlette
ORCHESTRAL ASSISTANT
Angela Chilcott
Artistic Administration
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Yvonne Zammit
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Raff Wilson
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DATABASE ANALYST
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Martin Keen
Margaret Moore
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Bernie Heard
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John Glenn
Derek Coutts
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Xing Jin
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CORPORATE RELATIONS EXECUTIVE
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Fran Cracknell
Caroline Mark
REPRESENTATIVES
PATRONS & EVENTS MANAGER
Georgina Andrews
31 | Sydney Symphony
Wendy Augustine
Matthew D’Silva
Michael Dowling
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