MUSIC
John Truscott picked up early on the idea that festivals could
bring together different companies to create special occasions.
/ Music
“
Melbourne Festival’s
chamber music
series has provided
wonderful continuity
over the years.
”
21
From the very first performance of the first Festival when the Melbourne
Symphony Orchestra (MSO) performed a morning concert for young people,
conducted by Richard Divall, the MSO has been one of the anchors of the
music program. In Truscott’s first program in 1989, Honegger’s oratorio,
Joan of Arc at the Stake was performed by four companies: the Victoria
State Opera, the MSO, the Melbourne Theatre Company and the Melbourne
Chorale. Similarly massive forces were deployed in 2004 by Robyn Archer:
the MSO, Melbourne Chorale, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Royal
Melbourne Philharmonic Choir performed Schönberg’s early masterpiece,
Gurrelieder, conducted by Markus Stenz in his farewell season at the helm.
Given the logistics and costs of touring symphony orchestras, the
Festival has presented few large international orchestras, with notable
exceptions including the Kirov Orchestra and Orchestre des Champs Elysées
(2001) and the London Philharmonic Orchestra (2009).
Many international chamber ensembles have visited. Yehudi
Menuhin conducted the Sinfonia Varsovia in 1998 and led classes for the
Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM)—an early example of what
has now become an inspiring tradition of masterclasses held by the Festival
and ANAM. In 2005, Kristy Edmunds invited Philip Glass to play his works
for solo piano and, with his Ensemble, perform Orion, a commission for
the Athens 2004 Olympics, uniting composers and musicians from diverse
backgrounds and opening with a didgeridoo solo from Mark Atkins. Most
recently, in 2014, Josephine Ridge brought the innovative London-based
Aurora Orchestra for a residency program consisting of three concerts, a
children’s program, masterclasses and discussions. Their energy and the
originality of their programs were familiar to fans of regular Festival guests,
the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO). The ACO was first presented by
John Truscott in 1990 and featured in the 2015 finale of Josephine Ridge’s
Haydn for Everyone project, which was conceived by ACO Artistic Director
Richard Tognetti and curated by Marshall McGuire.
Melbourne Festival’s chamber music series has provided wonderful
continuity over the years. Despite a few experiments with time and venue,
it has mostly been held at sunset in the Collins Street Baptist Church or
in the Assembly Hall. Gian Carlo Menotti began the tradition in 1987 and
between 1990 and 1999, through the directorships of John Truscott, Richard
Wherrett, Leo Schofield, Clifford Hocking and Sue Nattrass, the series was
curated by acclaimed pianist Stephen McIntyre. Jonathan Mills and Robyn
Archer continued in the Baptist Church before Kristy Edmunds gave it a
more contemporary edge and relocated it to Federation Square in her first
two programs. The series then disappeared until 2013, when Josephine
Ridge revived it in the Baptist Church as the backbone of Haydn for Everyone.
Leo Schofield’s passion for opera provided an exciting opportunity
for the MSO when he brought the Canadian Opera Company in 1994 and
then in 1996. Under the baton of Simone Young, they performed Richard
Strauss’ Die Frau Ohne Schatten with the Victoria State Opera in a production
that originally premiered at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. There
was more Strauss in 2001 when Jonathan Mills invited the Kirov Opera
to stage their production of Salome as well as Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel.
South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company and Belgium’s Ricercar Consort
performed William Kentridge’s imaginative and exquisite production of
Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses for Robyn Archer’s 2004 program.