Symphony Hour Program
We acknowledge that the land we make music on is the traditional country of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains. We pay respect to Elders past and present and recognise and respect their cultural heritage, beliefs and relationship with the land. We acknowledge that this is of continuing importance to the Kaurna people living today. We extend this respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are with us for this performance today.
Kats-Chernin Mythic (11′)
Stravinsky Petrushka
The Shrove-Tide Fair (10′)
Petrushka’s Cell (4′)
The Moor’s Cell (7′)
The Shrove-Tide Fair (Towards Evening) (13′)
Emilia Hoving Conductor
Emma Gregan Presenter
About the music
There is a scene in The Lord of the Rings where the characters venture deep into the Mines of Moria. The wizard Gandalf shines a light into the cavernous space, and we are invited to gaze in awe at the ancient walls of this lost subterranean city. Howard Shore’s score uses deep strings and resonant brass to depict the imposing scale of the mines. If you haven’t seen the film, you may recall your own adventures inside a real-world cave. Did you see mineral deposits jutting out from the hollow space, walls glistening with water droplets? Elena Kats-Chernin creates this wondrous atmosphere in Mythic (2004). The Uzbekistan-born Australian composer wrote in her own notes that she wanted to evoke “a slow, dark mood” for this imaginary landscape. While writing Mythic, she pictured an enchanting cave, and we can hear her otherworldly place through her use of orchestral colour and texture.
Listening tip: Composers often use the largest instruments of the orchestra to create a sense of scale – grand, ominous, and intimidating. The deep vibrations of lower strings and thunderous brass can manipulate our human instincts to feel the threat of the earth’s tremors, and our body’s ability to perceive the depth of a cave based on the rumble of an underground river.
Kats-Chernin has previously described the way her equally mythical ballet Wild Swans was influenced by the music of Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky. This leads to the next work on our program, Stravinsky’s ballet Petrushka. From a magical cave, we now enter a carnival in which puppets spring to life.
Petrushka premiered in Paris, 1911 with the Ballets Russes. Men in top hats and women wearing furs would have crowded into the theatre to watch this fairytale. But Stravinsky also arranged his work into a four-part concert version (1947). The music opens to reveal the scene of a carnival in St. Petersburg, 1830. Folk tunes contribute to the playful and festive mood.
In the first scene, the puppet Petrushka dances for the crowds, under the control of a Magician. The second scene shows the realities of life behind the stage: Petrushka is thrown into a cell, and can’t connect with the Ballerina he deeply admires. He loves to watch her dance, but she loves somebody else – the Moor. In the third scene, the Ballerina and Moor start getting romantic. But when Petrushka rudely interrupts them, he’s attacked and runs away into the carnival. The fourth scene shows the Moor killing Petrushka who will soon return as a ghost to haunt the Magician.
Listening tip:
In Petrushka, Stravinsky uses a group of notes known as the Petrushka Chord. If you’re a musicologist with perfect pitch, listen for the combined C and F-sharp major triads. But if you’re just like everyone else, you’ll know when the chord pops up throughout the piece because it’ll sound like something has gone dramatically wrong. Dissonance in music refers to a clashing and uncomfortable sound, and the Petrushka Chord reflects the dissonance of its character: human emotions in a puppet’s body.
© Stephanie Eslake 2024
Artists
Emilia Hoving | Conductor
Winner of the Finnish critics’ prize 2021 for the Best Newcomer in the Arts, Emilia Hoving (born 1994) is already firmly established in Europe, and has been invited back by orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Scottish Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.
She made her Japan debut in 2022 at Suntory Hall with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony and her Australasian debut with the Adelaide Symphony in 2023. She has a broad repertoire, and regularly conducts works by living (especially Finnish) composers, including at the Nordic Music Days festival in Glasgow, and is closely involved with the Helsinki Philharmonic’s ongoing project to revive works by neglected Finnish composers from the last century.
Hoving’s career began as Assistant to Hannu Lintu at the Finnish Radio Symphony (2019) and to Mikko Franck at Radio France (2020–22). She studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Professors Sakari Oramo and Atso Almila, having begun conducting studies in 2015 with Jorma Panula. She previously studied piano (from age 6) as well as the clarinet.
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
Violins
Kate Suthers** (Concertmaster)
Cameron Hill** (Associate Concertmaster)
Helen Ayres* (Guest Principal 1st Violin)
Alison Heike** (Principal 2nd Violin)
Lachlan Bramble ~ (Associate Principal 2nd Violin)
Janet Anderson
Runa Baagøe
Erna Berberyan
Gillian Braithwaite
Julia Brittain
Nadia Buck
Zoe Freisberg
Belinda Gehlert
Danielle Jaquillard
Zsuzsa Leon
Alexis Milton
Ambra Nesa
Julie Newman
Liam Oborne
Emma Perkins
Alexander Permezel
Alison Rayner
Violas
Justin Julian**
David Wicks ~ (Guest Associate Principal)
Martin Alexander
Lesley Cockram
Linda Garrett
Anna Hansen
Georgie Price
Michael Robertson
Cellos
Sharon Grigoryan** (Acting Section Principal)
Gemma Phillips~ (Acting Associate Principal)
Sherrilyn Handley
Joseph Freer
Andrew Leask
David Sharp
Arjun Singh
Cameron Waters
Double Basses
John Keene** (Guest Section Principal)
David Schilling~
Jacky Chang
Harley Gray
Belinda Kendall-Smith
Gustavo Quintino
Flutes
Kim Falconer**
Lisa Gill
Piccolo
Julia Grenfell*
Oboes
Joshua Oates**
Giselle Gabriels
Cor Anglais
Peter Duggan*
Clarinets
Dean Newcomb**
Darren Skelton
Bass Clarinet
Lloyd Van’t Hoff* (Guest Principal)
Bassoons
Mark Gaydon**
Leah Stephenson
Contrabassoon
Jackie Newcomb*
Horns
Adrian Uren**
Sarah Barrett~
Emma Gregan
Philip Paine*
Sam Peng
Timothy Skelly
Trumpets
David Khafagi**
Martin Phillipson~
Gregory Frick
Trombones
Colin Prichard**
John Gluyas
Bass Trombone
Amanda Tillett*
Tuba
Stan McDonald*
Timpani
Andrew Penrose*
Percussion
Steven Peterka**
Sami Butler~
Jamie Adam
Amanda Grigg
Harp
Jess Fotinos** (Guest Section Principal)
Keyboard
Michael Ierace* (piano – Guest Principal)
Katrina Reynolds* (celeste – Guest Principal)
** denotes Section Principal
~ denotes Associate Principal
* denotes Principal Player