Thursday 9 May 2024 6pm
Odeon Theatre, nipaluna / Hobart
Curated and performed by
Genevieve Lacey.
The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra acknowledges the traditional owners and continuing custodians of lutruwita / Tasmania. We pay respect to the Aboriginal community today, and to its Elders past and present. We recognise a history of truth, which acknowledges the impacts of colonisation upon Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and stand for a future that profoundly respects their stories, culture, language and history.
About the concert
Works
Veltheim The Beginning of the World (5 min)
Veltheim A Playford Maze (11 min)
Thorvaldsdottir Illumine (8 min)
Veltheim Illuminations: O ignis spiritus (9 min)
Davies Crystalline (5 min)
Finsterer The Philosopher’s Dream (12 min) – World Premiere
Genevieve Lacey
"I'll play six different recorders in this concert.
All but one are handmade, wooden, exquisite instruments.
The smallest — the garklein — is so tiny my fingers can barely cover the holes.
Also up in the stratospheres is the sopranino, Vivaldi’s concerto instrument, which sounds like a tiny, trilling bird, used here for a couple of intense moments in Mary Finsterer’s ‘The Philosopher’s Dream’. Erkki’s Hildegard arrangement has me purely in the ether, on garklein and descant, playing abstracted bird calls, which is something recorders have done for centuries.
For Playford and Sellinger, I’m playing mainly two beautiful versions of instruments that look more like a recorder of the size most people know, both Australian made, one of mulga wood, by brilliant instrument maker Jo Saunders.
Most of Mary’s piece ‘The Philosopher’s Dream’ is played on a tenor, which sounds like a breathy, haunted human voice. In her piece I also briefly play a bass, which is more than a metre long, and has a warm, beautifully mellow sound.
Each recorder has its own character and voice, and playing the suite of instruments gives me great scope in terms of colour and range.
The serene listening experience invites contemplation of the natural world, in all its wonder and fragility.
‘Of Ice and Stars’ alludes to the internal and external galaxies of the human imagination."
– From the curator, Genevieve Lacey
About the music
The Beginning of the World – A Planetry Prelude and Sellinger’s Round
For Descant Recorder, 14 Solo Strings and Continuo
Composed by Erkki Veltheim
5 minutes
Composed in 2023 by Erkki Veltheim using materials from Johannes Kepler’s ‘Harmonices Mundi’ published in 1619, and the folk tune Sellinger’s Round.
Commissioned by the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra in consultation with Genevieve Lacey.
Premiered by Genevieve Lacey and the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra at the Melbourne Recital Centre, 22 June 2023
A Playford Maze – A montage from The Dancing Master
For Descant Recorder, Strings and Continuo
Composed by Erkki Veltheim
11 minutes
Composed in 2023 using materials from John Playford’s ‘The English Dancing Master’/’The Dancing Master’, published in various editions between 1651 and 1728
Commissioned by the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra in consultation with Genevieve Lacey.
Premiered by Genevieve Lacey and the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra at the Melbourne Recital Centre, 22 June 2023
Illumine
For 3 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos and 1 double bass (2016)
Composed by Anna Thorvaldsdottir
8 minutes
The inspiration for Illumine is based on the notion of dawn and the relationship between light and darkness – in particular the ignition of the first beams of light and the subtle rhythms that appear through the pulsating dance of light emerging.
Illuminations: O ignis spiritus
For Recorder Soloist, 17 Solo Strings, and Electronics
Composed by Erkki Veltheim, based on the sequence ‘O ignis spiritus’ by Hildegard von Bingen
9 minutes
Crystalline
For string orchestra
Composed by Olivia Bettina Davies
Commissioned by the Hush Foundation
Premiered by the Australian Chamber Orchestra in 2018
5 minutes
The Philosopher's Dream
For Recorder Solo and String Orchestra with Electronics 2024
Composed by Mary Finsterer
World premiere performance
12 minutes
"The Philosopher's Dream, a concerto for solo recorder and string orchestra with an electro-acoustic soundscape, is inspired by a scene in my opera Antarctica, sharing the same title. As the music unfolds, the elaborately ornamented solo recorder emerges as a conduit for the philosopher's introspective journey. Infused with echoes of early Baroque madrigal art, the ornamentation weaves a luminous veil of dreaming and wonderment.
Through its ethereal melodies and shimmering textures, the concerto seeks to evoke the vast expanse and breathtaking beauty of Antarctica. Enriched by the rich layers of the string orchestra and an electro-acoustic soundscape, it creates an otherworldly ambiance, beckoning listeners to embark on a transcendent musical odyssey. With the virtuosic recorder leading the way, the composition invites exploration into themes of introspection, dreams, aspirations and the profound splendour of the Antarctic landscape."
– Mary Finsterer, composer
Composed for and first performed by Genevieve Lacey and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Commissioned by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
Musicians
Genevieve Lacey
Curator and recorder sololist
Musician and arts advocate Genevieve Lacey creates and performs multi-artform pieces that combine her skills as performer, composer, and curator. Works include Breathing Space (a permanent sound installation at the National Museum of Australia) Soliloquy (a re-invention of the solo recital), Consort of the Moon (a communal choral work), Pleasure Garden (a listening garden), and Recorder Queen (a semi-animated documentary).
As a recorder virtuoso, Genevieve makes regular appearances as a soloist with Australian and international orchestras including the Australian Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Concerto Copenhagen, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, and the Melbourne, Tasmanian and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras. She has performed at the Lindau International Convention of Nobel Laureates, for Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey, as a concerto soloist in the Royal Albert Hall for BBC Proms, at the opening night of the London Jazz Festival and on a basketball court on Thursday Island with Australian indigenous ensemble The Black Arm Band.
An advocate for contemporary composition, Genevieve has commissioned and premiered works by a huge number of composers working in radically different ways. Genevieve currently serves on the board of A New Approach (ANA) and Chairs ANA's Advisory Group. She's a former Chair of the Australian Music Centre board (2016-21), artistic director and co-executive producer for Finding Our Voice (2021-23), inaugural Artistic Advisor for UKARIA Cultural Centre (2017-2023), and inaugural artistic director for Musica Viva's FutureMakers (2015-2023). Her curatorial expertise has been sought by LiveWorks (2020-22), Rising (2019-20), Adelaide Festival (2019), and Melbourne Recital Centre, where she was artist in residence (2018). Her work has won ARIA and AIR, Helpmann and Green Room awards, Churchill, Freedman and Australia Council Fellowships, the Melbourne Prize for Music (Outstanding Musician Award), Australian Women in Music Awards, Excellence in Classical Music, John Truscott Artists Award and the Sidney Myer Individual Performing Arts Award.
“The incomparable Genevieve Lacey”
– The Australian
“Wit, sensuality, and mind-boggling flamboyance”
– The Guardian
“Superlative musicianship, beguiling tone and masterful flexibility”
– The Age
“The collaborations of recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey are invariably imaginative, creative and engaging, yet her most recent offering has raised the bar, even for Lacey, to stratospheric heights.”
– Limelight
Luke Dollman
Conductor
Luke Dollman has conducted throughout Europe and Australasia, working with orchestras such as the London Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Helsinki Philharmonic, Monte Carlo Philharmonic, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Halle Staatskapelle, Lausanne Sinfonietta, and all professional orchestras in Australia and New Zealand.
In the field of opera he has worked at the Finnish National Opera, Opera Australia, the State Opera of South Australia, and the Netherlands Opera.
Luke is a graduate of the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and furthered his studies at the Aspen Festival of Music and Accademia Chigiana. He is Associate Professor in Conducting and Deputy Director at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide.
Orchestra List
Genevieve Lacey Curator, Recorders
Luke Dollman Conductor
Nicholas van den Enden Lighting Operator
Bob Gardam Sound Engineer
June Tyzack Creative Director
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
Violin
Emma McGrath Concertmaster
Ji Won Kim Associate Concertmaster
Lucy Carrig-Jones Principal Second
Jennifer Owen Principal First
Miranda Carson
Yue-Hong Cha
Tobias Chisnall
Frances Davies
Michael Johnston
Christine Lawson
Elinor Lea
Susanna Low
Christopher Nicholas
Rohana O'Malley
Viola
Caleb Wright Principal
Douglas Coghill
Anna Larsen Roach
William Newbery
Ariel Postmus
Cello
Jonathan Békés Principal
Alexandra Békés
Nicholas McManus
Martin Penicka
Double Bass
Stuart Thomson Principal
Matthew McGrath
Adrian Whitehall
Chamber Organ
Neal Peres da Costa Guest Principal
Orgelbauwerkstatt Kirschner chamber organ courtesy of Van Diemen’s Band.
Theorbo/Baroque Guitar
Simon Martyn-Ellis Guest Principal
💡 FIRST-TIMER TIP
Did you know our Concertmaster plays a violin hand-crafted by one of the finest and most important luthiers (a string-instrument maker) of the nineteenth century, Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (1798–1875).
He crafted 3000+ instruments in his time and we’re very proud to have a violin made in 1845 on loan from two of our generous Tasmanian patrons.
*Correct at time of publishing
Odeon Theatre
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What are acoustics and how do they affect my concert experience?
Acoustics are the science of sound, or the way a venue can deliver the thunderous feeling of strings and brass, or the ring of the triangle over all the other instruments.
Up Next at The Odeon
Obscura 2, Clothed In Words
The chorus is an instrument with a voice: able to utter expressive words, picturesque words, sensational words.
In this thought-provoking performance words are sung, chanted, whispered, jumbled, worn and projected.
See Event
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TSO Concertmaster Emma McGrath plays an 1845 Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin on
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