ARTIST PROFILE 0198 BERND GLEMSER B ernd Glemser is a rare breed of pianist both in his phenomenally broad and eclectic repertory and in his seemingly ubiquitous presence on the concert stage. Indeed, so much about his career appears worthy of the record books. Since 1981 he has won outright or captured a prize in seventeen consecutive international competitions (including the People’s Choice Award in the 1985 Sydney International Piano Competition). In 1989 he became the youngest professor to teach at a German university when he took up a position at the Musikhochschule in Saarbrücken, and in 1996 he was invited to become the first Western musician to perform live on Chinese television. He has made 33 recordings, the first appearing only in 1994, and has performed with major orchestras and conductors throughout Europe, Canada, the United States, South America, China, Japan, Australia and elsewhere. His repertory encompasses most major composers from J S Bach to the moderns and takes in large chunks of Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev. In addition to many awards, he received the Andor Foldes Prize in 1992 and the European Pianist’s Prize in 1993 in Zurich. In 2003 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany. TSO PARTNERS RECITAL SERIES 10 SEBASTIAN LANG-LESSING Chief Conductor & Artistic Director BERND GLEMSER IN RECITAL Chief Conductor & Artistic Director Sebastian Lang-Lessing Managing Director Nicholas Heyward Australian Music Program Director Lyndon Terracini TSO Chorusmaster June Tyzack TSO Board Geoff Willis Chairman Patricia Leary Deputy Chair Don Challen Maria Grenfell Nicholas Heyward Paul Oxley David Rich John Upcher Colin Norris Company Secretary TSO Foundation Chairman Colin Jackson OAM FOTSO President Susan Williams TASMANIAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Federation Concert Hall 1 Davey Street, Hobart Tasmania 7000 Australia GPO Box 1450, Hobart Tasmania 7001 Australia Box Office 1800 001 190 boxoffi[email protected]Administration (03) 6232 4444 www.tso.com.au CORE PUBLIC SUPPORT PREMIER PARTNERS MAJOR PARTNERS WE ALSO WISH TO THANK Foot & Playsted Fine Printers, Fuji Xerox Shop Tasmania. The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and through Arts Tasmania by the Minister for the Arts, and the Tasmanian Icon Program. PARTNERS LEADERSHIP PARTNERS MEDIA SUPPORTERS
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artist profile
0198
Bernd Glemser
Bernd Glemser is a rare breed of pianist both in his phenomenally broad and eclectic repertory and
in his seemingly ubiquitous presence on the concert stage. Indeed, so much about his career appears worthy of the record books. Since 1981 he has won outright or captured a prize in seventeen consecutive international competitions (including the People’s
Choice Award in the 1985 Sydney International Piano Competition). In 1989 he became the youngest professor to teach at a German university when he took up a position at the Musikhochschule in Saarbrücken, and in 1996 he was invited to become the first Western musician to perform live on Chinese television. He has made 33 recordings, the first appearing only in 1994, and has performed with major orchestras and conductors throughout Europe, Canada, the United States, South America, China, Japan, Australia and elsewhere. His repertory encompasses most major composers from J S Bach to the moderns and takes in large chunks of Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev. In addition to many awards, he received the Andor Foldes Prize in 1992 and the European Pianist’s Prize in 1993 in Zurich. In 2003 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Foot & Playsted Fine Printers, Fuji Xerox Shop Tasmania.
The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and through Arts Tasmania by the Minister for the Arts, and the Tasmanian Icon Program.
PArTners
leAdershiP PArTners
mediA sUPPOrTers
BerND GleMser iN reCital
bookings > 1800 001 190 or tso.com.au
tso CaleNDar of CoNCerts
ThUrsdAy 25 nOVemBer 7PmFederation Concert Hall, Hobart
Bernd Glemser piano
BrAhmsPiano Pieces Op 118
No 1 Intermezzo in A minorNo 2 Intermezzo in A major
mendelssOhnsongs without Words
Op 19 No 1 in E major, Andante con motoOp 19 No 5 in F-sharp minor, Poco agitatoOp 30 No 6 in F-sharp minor, Allegretto tranquillo (Venetian Gondola Song)Op 38 No 2 in C minor, Allegro non troppoOp 67 No 4 in C major, Presto (Spinning Song)Op 62 No 1 in G major, Andante espressivoOp 62 No 3 in E minor, Andante maestosoOp 19 No 3 in A major, Molto allegro e vivaceFantasie in F-sharp minor Op 28, sonate écossaise
Con moto agitatoAllegro con motoPresto
inTerVAl20 mins
ChOPinBallade no 1 in G minor Op 23
nocturne in C-sharp minor Op 27 no 1
nocturne in d-flat major Op 27 no 2
mazurka in A minor Op 17 no 4
mazurka in B-flat minor Op 24 no 4
scherzo no 4 in e major Op 54
This concert will end at approximately 9pm.
ABC Classic FM will be recording this concert for broadcast. We would appreciate your cooperation in keeping coughing to a minimum. Please ensure that your mobile phone is switched off.
Having spent decades fretting over large-scale musical forms – the
symphony above all – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) devoted his twilight years to writing mostly small-scale works for the piano, the instrument that had occupied him since boyhood. By the time he wrote the Piano Pieces Op 118 in 1893, Brahms was a renowned and much decorated composer. The short Intermezzo in A minor is rather like a prelude in that it maintains a single texture throughout as it develops, however briefly, the motifs of the opening phrase. Concluding with an A major chord, it prepares the key of the intermezzo which follows, an altogether more substantial piece. Discursive and rhapsodic, the richly autumnal Intermezzo in A major is justifiably one of Brahms’s best-loved piano works.
Music in the nineteenth century embraced a wealth of seemingly contradictory tendencies. Among them were the trend towards the gigantic and the trend towards the miniature. The latter is apparent in the tremendous popularity for single-movement works for solo piano, very often intended for domestic use. The tuneful and imaginative songs without Words by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) are characteristic examples. Six volumes of Songs without Words (each containing six works) were published during
Mendelssohn’s lifetime and a further two books appeared posthumously. Selections from volumes 1-3 (Opp 19, 30 and 38) and 5 and 6 (Opp 62 and 67) are presented in this recital. Embracing the tender, joyful and melancholy, these brief meditations eschew the purely virtuosic in favour of the intimate and expressive. As applied to music, the word ‘fantasie’ (or ‘fantasy’) indicates a work that, although fully notated, gives the impression of being semi-improvised, unfolding according to its own digressive logic rather than following an established formal model. Mendelssohn’s Fantasie in F-sharp minor Op 28, sonate écossaise, complicates the issue slightly by being both a fantasy and a multi-movement work (it is subtitled ‘Sonate écossaise’ or ‘Scottish sonata’). In this way it resembles Beethoven’s Moonlight sonata (Quasi una fantasia). Like Beethoven’s Moonlight, it is the opening movement that is the fantasy. The middle movement, Allegro con moto, is a pleasant, unpretentious interlude that gives way to a brilliant Presto, a fully worked out sonata-form finale. The Fantasie in F-sharp Minor, Sonate écossaise, is rarely heard in performance and offers a fresh perspective on a composer whose small-scale piano music is better known than his large-scale. Despite the word ‘Scottish’ in the subtitle, there are no Scottish melodies in the work as such. Mendelssohn did, however, write and hone the work before and after his first trip to the British Isles in 1829.
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Polish composer Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849). Chopin left his homeland at the age of twenty and eventually settled in Paris where he made a name for himself as one of the leading composers of his time, writing almost exclusively for the piano. Chopin was himself a pianist, although he preferred to perform in private salons
rather than public concert halls. He made his living primarily from sheet music sales and piano teaching. Just as Mendelssohn invented ‘songs without words’, Chopin invented ‘ballades without words’. There may be stories unpinning Chopin’s four ballades but we will never know what they are. A long, episodic and technically demanding work, the Ballade no 1 in G minor Op 23 traverses a wide range of moods – from the hauntingly introspective to the wildly exuberant – and offers a stunning variety of piano textures. While not the inventor of the piano nocturne, that honour goes to Irish composer John Field, Chopin did more than any other composer to popularise the genre. As the name implies, a nocturne is a ‘night piece’. Slow and dreamy (but often with a tempestuous middle section), nocturnes typically spin out a graceful right-hand melody over rippling arpeggio patterns in the left hand. The nocturne in C-sharp minor Op 27 no 1 and nocturne in d-flat major Op 27 no 2, which were composed in 1835, are typical of the genre and are among Chopin’s finest nocturnes. Chopin’s Polish heritage is revealed in his mazurkas, traditional folk dances of Poland. While not meant for dancing, Chopin’s mazurkas make use of characteristic features of the Polish prototype, notably triple time, weak-beat accentuations and dotted rhythms. The mazurka in A minor Op 17 no 4 and mazurka in B-flat minor Op 24 no 4 are works of extraordinary subtlety and insight – the first poignant and melancholy, the second rather more extrovert but not without the mournful echo of a patriot in exile. Brilliance comes to the fore in the scherzo no 4 in e major Op 54, a work in which expansive and vigorous outer sections enclose a pensive, nocturne-like central episode.
saturday 27 november 8pm Bernd's Back!FederATiOn COnCerT hAll, hOBArT Bernd Glemser makes
a triumphant return to Tasmania following his sensational appearances in 2008 – don’t miss this opportunity to hear one of the great pianists of our time perform Brahms’ sizzling First Piano Concerto.
sebastian lang-lessing conductorBernd Glemser piano
BRAHMS Piano Concerto No 1SHOSTAkOvICH Symphony No 5
saturday 11 december 6pm Christmas with the TSO FederATiOn COnCerT hAll, hOBArT Welcome the festive
season with the TSO! Hear all your Christmas favourites and sing along too! A fun-filled event for all the family, Christmas with the TSO is a concert you won’t want to miss.
Brett Weymark conductorJames Clayton baritoneChristopher lawrence compereTsO Chorus
Program includes:HANDEL Messiah (excerpts)TCHAIkOvSkY Nutcracker (excerpts)CORELLI Christmas ConcertoANDERSON Sleigh RideSilent Night, O Come all Ye Faithful, The First Nowell
monday 29 november 8pm New WorldsFederATiOn COnCerT hAll, hOBArT Bernd Glemser performs
Brahms’ brilliant Second Piano Concerto and Sebastian Lang-Lessing conducts Dvorák’s ever-popular New World symphony – voted Australia’s favourite symphony in ABC Classic FM’s nationwide poll.
tuesday 30 november 8pm
AlBerT hAll, lAUnCesTOn
sebastian lang-lessing conductorBernd Glemser piano
