1990
The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra: Traditional Associations and New Departures
The ASO is moving into the Nineties with even more vitality than before. It is the “on” year for the Adelaide Festival, the orchestra is moving permanently to a handsomely refurbished Town Hall and for the first time they will have
their own composer-in-residence with the arrival of Canadian- born Neil Currie.
Over the past couple of years the orchestra, under the stewardship of General Manager, Michael Elwood, and Chief Conductor Nicholas Braithwaite, has consolidated its subscription base and fine-tuned its musical offerings to the evident satisfaction of audiences. The three main streams in the programme – the Masters Series, the Meet the Music Series and the Studio Series – have successfully established a horses for courses approach which has enabled the demands from all sections of Adelaide’s musical community to be met.
In 1989, subscriptions for the Masters series have been up several percent and Michael Elwood is confident that the 1990 programme will prove equally enticing. Pianist Moura Lympany, a great success previously, will be returning, this time to perform the Schumann Piano Concerto and, although Dmitri Alexeev has played in this country before, he has not been heard on the Adelaide platform. He will present the Ravel Concerto in G.
The Georgian conductor, Jansug Kakhidze, joins countryman Yuri Bashmet, for the Bartok Viola Concerto in June. Other soloists include pianist Imogen Cooper, cellist Ralph Kirschbaum and the flamboyant double bassist, Gary Karr. At the podium will be Bryden Thomson from the UK, Muhai Tang from Beijing, who has now established an enormous following in Europe and the United States, and Eduardo Mata whose work with the orchestra back in 1986 will be warmly remembered.
“The Masters series needs to be a broad statement without going out to the avant garde or staying too close to the old chestnuts,” explains Michael Elwood. “Important works like the mainstream symphonies by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann, Schubert and, of course, Tchaikovsky, all need to be heard regularly. But there are more concerts which don’t follow the old format of an overture followed by a concerto and a symphony. It enables us to play more pieces, many of which are not of symphony length. It makes things less predictable. We have had many responses from the public indicating their pleasure at seeing an increase in attendances. Without making kneejerk reactions to any particular section, we seem to be getting the mix right.”
The Meet the Music format saw significant changes in 1989 which will continue for 1990 as well. A new time of 6.30 pm and a close co-ordination with the year 12 secondary school syllabus has focused the series and won hearts, minds and subscriptions. Performances, held in the Elder Hall were consistently sold out and Elwood is particularly heartened by the numbers of young people and families in attendance.
The repertoire includes works such as Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Elgar’s Serenade, the Bach Violin Concerto in E, the Beethoven Third Symphony, Shostokavich Five and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 – all from the Matric syllabus- but equally in evidence are lesser known composers, favoured over the last few years by the ASO, such as Szymanowski and the distinguished Australian, Peter Sculthorpe.
Both ASO regulars, Nicholas Braithwaite and Jorge Mester will conduct in the series- Braithwaite appearing with the violinist Wang Xiao Dong and Mester with pianist Ben Martin. Frans Helmerson will play the Haydn Cello Concerto under Sian Edwards, who turns her attention to the Shostakovich Five also. Composer Richard Mills will conduct his own Flute Concerto to be performed by Virginia Taylor and with the Saint-Saens Symphony No 3 he will also ensure that the new Town Hall organ will get an airing.
Ever since the foundation stone was laid in 1863 and it opened for business in 1866, the Adelaide Town Hall has been a significant focus not only for the civic life of the city but its musical life as well. But gracious though the building undoubtedly was, by the late 1970’s it had become evident that alterations were necessary if it was to remain functional and not simply become a Victorian curiosity.
Accordingly, the Adelaide City Council announced a four stage Master Plan with a projected completion date for the 1986 Sesquicentennial. Stage I saw the external renovations completed and Stage II refitted the civic areas including the Lord Mayoral offices and such. The Auditorium and Banquet Room were completed in time for the Adelaide Festival in 1988. The final stage has been to refurbish all the foyers and service areas. Effectively this has meant almost completely rebuilding the Prince Alfred Chambers on the second level to provide catering preparation areas as well as bar and eating facilities.
Some modifications have been made with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra particularly in mind. Extra attention has paid to the staging, enabling an additional five meters of podium space and on the second floor, extensive provision has been made for artists’ rooms. The broadcast service areas have also been substantially improved. The cost for Stage IV alone has been $3.5 M and for the whole project the figure is said to be nearly $12M.
“With these changes the Town Hall has been made into a very glamorous venue,” Michael Elwood enthuses.”The foyers have been revamped so that that they wrap the Auditorium on all sides and the amenities, especially the toilet and rest room facilities, are now appropriate for the attendance numbers. Audiences will now find all the facilities they have to come expect in the way of bars, coffee service and food concessions.”
But while the creature comforts are important, especially since concert-goers have become used to the layout at the Festival Centre, the real bonus will be the quality of the sound they will hear when the Adelaide Symphony performs again in the Town Hall. As Nicholas Braithwaite observes, “While the Festival Theatre is a magnificent facility, the acoustic is a real struggle. Whereas the Town Hall is now a beautiful hall with a beautiful acoustic.”
The ASO makes it recordings in the Town Hall, some of which, including programmes of Poulenc, Shostakovich and some particularly brilliant performances of Bartok and Szymanowski by violinist Wang Xiao Dong, will be available on tape and compact disc in the near future. As Braithwaite notes, the Shostakovich could only have been recorded at the Town Hall. “All the slow, quiet violin writing in the Eighth is almost unperformable in the Festival Theatre because the acoustic is so dry.”
Michael Elwood agrees- “The Festival Theatre gives great clarity but there is no impact. I think with the return to the Town Hall the first thing people will realise they have been missing is the physical impact of the music, the sense of having music virtually all around them. They’ll certainly get in the Mahler Fifth in the first programme of the Masters. I think this a very plus. I do believe that we will come as close as we can to competing with the high fidelity of the compact disc. I hope we can encourage people to come to the Town Hall to hear a fantastically vibrant that is really going to get to them.” To compensate for the reduced capacity at the Town Hall -1100 compared to nearly 2,000 for the Festival Theatre- a third performance will be scheduled for each programme, to be played at the earlier time of 6.30 on Thursday evenings.
But the 1990 ASO season is not just going to pamper the ears with familiar masterworks it will also be showcasing the challenging new compositions of the Adelaide Symphony’s first Composer-in-Residence, Neil Currie. Originally from Vancouver he has studied both music and clinical psychology at the Universities of Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and the Toronto Conservatory before taking up residency in Australia based at the University of Sydney .
At thirty four Currie has already distinguished himself as a composer. His works include the Windmill series written for trombone, reeds, percussion and synthesisers, Fireflies written for the Australian Guitar Ensemble and Guiuwada which was performed by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra under Dobbs Franks. He is best known for Ortigas Avenue written in honour of Cory Aquino’s peaceful coup in the Phillipines in 1986.
During his two year stay with the ASO Neil Currie will write works for performance in both the Masters series and the Studio series. Initiated this year the Studio series has been held at the ABC studios in Collinswood where the orchestra has presented a range of contemporary works with introductory comments and discussion from music specialists and the composers themselves.
Michael Elwood is keen for the association between composer and orchestra to begin. After the Melbourne Symphony worked so well with Brenton Broadstock, he is equally confident of the benefits not only to the ASO but the Adelaide music community in general for Neil Currie to establish a presence in the city. “I see the relationship as an effective two-way thing. Composers in this situation are quite privileged because they have a live orchestra to work with. They have an opportunity of snatching time here and there to get a bit played and have a sense of the sounds they are making. The other important thing is that the musicians- who can sometimes have a reluctance, certainly an apprehension about playing new music, can get to meet the composer and discuss the work being prepared.”
Neil Currie is in full agreement-“For me it is the closest thing to Utopia for a composer to be able to work with an orchestra . I have worked with electronics but my traditional musical upbringing has won out at this stage so I really do prefer to work with live performers and acoustic instruments.”
Asked to characterise his compositions, Currie says, “A lot of my music sounds like dance music, it often has a steady and lively beat, lots of syncopation and a quite discernible beat. Its origins probably come from many years pounding clapped out pianos in a dance band !.” He is also a trombonist -is there a jazz element in his writing ? “There is a kind of jam session phenomenon. The instruments all comply to a particular set of chords, similar to a jazz vehicle which forms the harmonic basis around which individual instruments play their scales and arpeggios and various filigree work. That sort of idea operates in some of my compositions.”
“When composing at the beginning I don’t work on an instrument of any kind. ” I work with a musical fragment or idea and I’ll try and plan in my mind the course it might take and elaborate it into a composition of a particular length. When I have an idea for the larger scale form for this piece then I may go to the piano for some specific working out. I’m not ashamed to admit I do a fair amount of compositional work at the piano. It ultimately leads to a sense of clarity and of rhythmic and pitch certainty.”
“Then when I feel I’ve got a coherent draft I’ll key it into the computer and print out a rough score and in effect start over again, filling in gaps that are missing and taking adavantage of the clarity that is provided by having large clean sheets of paper. ”
It is at that point that having an orchestra at hand would be something of a boon. “I have been one of the composers in Australia who has benefited from the national Orchestra Composers school which is held every year with one of the symphony orchestras. Four or five composers submit works and refine their ideas with the musicians for a eight or ten day period. I have found that to be a tremendously beneficial process because orchestration is heavily dependant on experience.”
Neil Currie is certainly a gregarious artist,
as he says, “there won’t be anything arms length about my involvement in the Adelaide music scene.” He already has two or three pieces sketched for development when he arrives. One of his first public works will be the fanfare for the opening of the new Town Hall organ on March 1st. he also sees himself as an ambassador for contemporary music. “I’ll have some role in trying to bring the audience into the world of the composer and bridging that gap between my understanding of the work and their’s as intelligent, interested audiences.”
“One of my own modus operandi is to use music to capture the spirit of an event like the folk songs in Ortegas Avenue or an Aboriginal song in Windmill, where I fragmented it subjecting it to a series of mathematical processes -which is another of my main musical tools. The Ortegas Avenue work was my response to a peaceful coup, an expression of the will of the people ousting an unpopular dictator. That is what working with Peter Sculthorpe has encouraged in me – a sense of bringing the world into my composition and to understand the importance of this me and for my listener, so that people will find it easier to share in my musical composition.”
Murray Bramwell
“New Season for Braithwaite” Symphony Australia, ABC Publications, 1990, pp.35-6.