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ABOUT THE MUSIC

Thomas Adès
Court Studies from The Tempest (2005)
1) The False Duke
2) The Prince
3) The King
4) The False Duke's Defeat
5) The Counsellor
6) The King's Grief

Drew Gilchrist | Clarinet
Miriam Niessl | Violin
Daniel Shearer | Cello
Alex Raineri | Piano

The Tempest is an opera premiered in 2004, written by English contemporary composer Thomas Adès. With a libretto by Meredith Oakes, it is based on the Shakespeare play of the same name which tells a tale of sorcery, shipwrecks, and bickering royalty. Court Studies is a quilt of various short sequences from the opera, arranged for the Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time instrumentation. The music intoxicatingly weaves a tapestry of highly charged, intensely expressive musical motives, constantly scooting between states of harsh dissonance and breathtakingly beautiful consonance. This is music that gives no preference to chaos or repose, but interrogates both extremities with sincere character.

Program Note © Alex Raineri

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John Adams
Road Movies (1995)
1) Relaxed groove
2) Meditative
3) 40% Swing

Courtenay Cleary | Violin
Alex Raineri | Piano

After years of studiously avoiding the chamber music format I have suddenly begun to compose for the medium in real earnest. The 1992 Chamber Symphony was followed by the string quartet, John's Book of Alleged Dances, written for Kronos in 1994, and now comes Road Movies. My music of the 70s and 80s was principally about massed sonorities and the physical and emotional potency of big walls of triadic harmony. These musical gestures were not really germane to chamber music with its democratic parceling of roles, its transparency and timbral delicacy. Moreover, the challenge of writing melodically, something that chamber music demands above and beyond all else, was yet to be solved. Fortunately, a breakthrough in melodic writing came about during the writing of The Death of Klinghoffer, an opera whose subject and mood required a whole new appraisal of my musical language.

The title "Road Movies" is total whimsy, probably suggested by the "groove" in the piano part, all of which is required to be played in a "swing" mode (second and fourth of every group of four notes are played slightly late).

Movement I is a relaxed drive down a not unfamiliar road. Material is recirculated in a sequence of recalls that suggest a rondo form.

Movement II is a simple meditation of several small motives. A solitary figure in a empty desert landscape.

Movement III is for four wheel drives only, a big perpetual motion machine called "40% Swing". On modern MIDI sequencers the desired amount of swing can be adjusted with almost ridiculous accuracy. 40% provides a giddy, bouncy ride, somewhere between an Ives ragtime and a long rideout by the Goodman Orchestra, circa 1939. It is very difficult for violin and piano to maintain over the seven-minute stretch, especially in the tricky cross-hand style of the piano part. Relax, and leave the driving to us.

Program Note © John Adams

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Jake Heggie
Eve-Song (1996)
1) My Name
2) Even
3) Good
4) Listen
5) Snake
6) Woe to Man
7) The Wound
8) The Farm
Texts by Phillip Littell

Bethany Shepherd | Soprano
Alex Raineri | Piano

The American composer Jake Heggie is known primarily for his internationally acclaimed operas, including Moby Dick, Dead Man Walking, At The Statue of Venus, and Three Decembers. But he has always been, first and foremost, a devoted songwriter. To date, he has composed more than 250 art songs as well as orchestral, choral and chamber music.

Heggie states: "Eve-Song was composed for Kristin Clayton, Natural Selection for Nicolle Foland, and Songs and Sonnets to Ophelia for Peggy Kriha-Dye ... and each work was premiered on a Schwabacher Debut Recital in San Francisco. I knew these singers so well as close, personal friends – and was able to give them a piece they could really get inside and make their own. I wanted to give them strong, powerful, yet vulnerable women ... and wanted the music to give them the opportunity to explore the many and complex facets of these women.” Heggie’s music reflects a wide range of influences. As he says: “In these songs, the singer encounters the full gamut of the influences I grew up with: folk music, jazz, pop, opera, musical theater, rock, art song. I encourage performers to embrace these elements in the songs and not shy away from them. If it feels jazzy, well, it probably is.”

Heggie approached the New York-born writer Philip Littell about a song cycle for soprano Kristin Clayton in 1995, and they decided to create a dramatic work that would offer a modern perspective on the biblical Eve. Heggie has stated that a real singing actress is required for this large group of eight songs. In particular, the first song (My Name) requires vast, imaginative resources from a singer, as it alternately explores lullaby, recitative, arioso, a Kurt Weill parody, and a ballad. It is quixotic and hard to pin down, just like Eve herself. In this song, Heggie imagines Eve is an old woman rocking her grandchild (also named Eve) on a porch in the South … and the memories come flooding back. The second song, (Even) is one of beauty, sadness and wonder as Eve sits beside a river and observes the world at sundown. A long, arching vocal line is accompanied by a gently swirling piano figure – the introduction of the winding, seductive snake motif that will be developed in subsequent songs. It was Eve’s job to name the animals of the newly formed Earth, and Good is her light-hearted, joyful romp in not only naming them, but figuring out which ones are best to eat. This leads her, inevitably, to the apple. Listen follows as the start of a deeper, sensual awareness and awakening for Eve. There is a shiver and shudder of excitement and anticipation as the snake’s words entice and caress Eve’s imagination. Snake is the full awakening of that imagination in a swinging tune that introduces the freedom of jazz. Eve follows the snake as he leads her through shadow and light, and convinces her to bite the apple. With that bite comes a stunning awakening – and a range of tastes and feelings she had never known, ranging from sweet, sour, salty and bitter to rotten. “Now I know,” she says. Woe to Man is Eve’s stinging curse to all men, performed as an old-fashioned, music-hall showcase. With her new knowledge, she also possesses an awareness of how she is discriminated against, stereotyped, discounted and cast out. She cries out for all women against this outrage. The Wound is a slow, tender lullaby about birth and the sharing of legacy. It is the story of a single child, and that of the entire human race. It leads to the final song in the cycle (The Farm) in which Eve, as an old woman, tries to remember details about Eden. In Heggie’s words: “She tries to find the words, the tune, the memory … and it is difficult, because she has moved on without bitterness. She chooses to remember the good, though a current of sorrow and hurt will always be part of what makes her Eve.”

1. My Name

Eve, Eve, must be the sound I made

as I was being made.

Eve. Eve. Eve.

Out I came, made up by a couple of men.

Old man made me out of Adam’s rib…

Oh, did he?

God made Adam

God

Adam

God

Damn it!

My children are going to know who their mother is.

Eve.

Mad bad Eve the amnesiac,

Eve, Eve the nymphomaniac,

ME!

Was young man Adam completely unconscious

as I was manufactured?

Did he groan and whimper EVE as I slipped out?

Did God mutter EVE as he slapped me into shape?

Did I scream EVE at the inevitable rape?

Or was EVE the last breath shaped into a sound

by my mother’s mouth as I came out?

I was too little to save her or remember anything about her…

Eve.

What are they trying to tell me with their stories?

I am allowed no clothing.

I am allowed no shame.

I have nothing to wear but my beautiful hair,

My body, my face, MY NAME.

Eve.

2. Even

In the evening I am at peace.

in the evening I hear ev’rything more clearly

ev’rything

to the hearer all the world does sing

with a ringing and a quickening

overhead the birds wheel and turn

overhead the setting sun

reddening no longer burns

at the water’s edge a wind brushes by me

with a susurration:

grass and leaves

flowers glow against the dark’ning trees

eyesight and the light both go

ev’ry evening the forest darkens

in the evening my senses sharpen

I have no peace at night

3. Good

Good Morning Whoever you are.

Good Morning. Do you have a name yet?

Let me name you.

It must be the right name

So I don’t Forget.

What Shall I name you?

What Is your name?

I have not Eaten yet.

Are you slow?

Are you fleet?

Are you obedient?

Are you Good to eat?

Mm..

Almost Ev’rything is good to eat.

Good morning.

If I could I would eat the world

Because it’s Good.

Mm.

4. Listen

Its entire body ripples back and forth like a sentence,

fascinating.

Do you want to be like God?

How do you mean?

Be old and have a penis?

I don’t think so.

Do you want to be like God?

You know what I mean.

Yes. I do.

My entire body ripples up and down like a story.

I am listening.

5. Snake

Snake, is it true

About the fruit?

My intuition tells me what you say about this fruit is true.

I’d like to find out, snake.

I’d love to know.

Go ahead in front of me

Where I can see you.

I will follow you.

Oh!

The snake is in the tree.

Where I cannot see him.

He is now the color of Shadows.

Very few things are

As visible as I am

When I’m clean.

When a thing is visible,

It always mean that the thing,

The tree frog, or that fruit,

means to be seen.

Visibility’s

A warning

An invitation

And it never tells you

Which.

What’s visible will either

Feed you,

Mate with you,

Or kill you.

Either way you gain

Experience.

Here goes.

Sweet.

Sour.

Salty.

Bitter.

And the taste of air,

Of rottenness,

Earth,

And water.

Now I know.

6. Woe to Man

Woe to man

What can a man expect?

Think of all the riches, gifts,

Woman brings in her train,

Oh,

Besides her obvious diff’rences

(Inside out below the waist,

Bigger breasts, smaller brain)…

Can you think of any?

Anything?

She is nothing

But trouble

Oh nothing but trouble.

Nothing.

She is no thing.

Ah!

You haven’t lived until

A man has said that to you.

Woman

Because she was born of man.

Woe to man

Because he is born of woman.

La da dee da dum.

La da dee da da dum.

La la da deed um da.

Ah.

7. The Wound

The wound

Reopened

Opens the tomb

Her womb

Quickens

The woman

Sickens

And hungers

Hugely

The world in her belly

The sky in her head

Limbs heavy

She swells

A drop of water

Will not hold

Let it go

Let go

Not yet

The new-formed baby

Will not let me

Let it go

Just yet.

What is already

In that head?

Forget. Forget.

8. The Farm

As I recollect

It was more like a farm

Than a garden.

We all worked.

It was a nice farm.

Trees.

Ev’rything grew.

Good soil

And plenty of water.

No, it didn’t rain,

We lived by the rivers.

The Tigris and the Euphrates.

You might say

That’s where it all started.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Bethany Shepherd (1989) discovered her voice by accident while dancing in musicals in her home town of Armidale, Australia. She decided to further her musical education undertaking a Bachelor of Music in Performance at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, studying under Joseph Ward and Lisa Gasteen. Having uncovered a passion for historically informed performance practice, she moved to the Netherlands in 2013 to undertake a Master in Early Music at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.

While studying at the Royal Conservatory, together with friends she created the ensemble Le Voci delle Grazie, which specialized in female early Italian Baroque music. With this group she performed in early music festivals across Europe and took part in the prestigious eeemerging programme designed to support young talented early music ensembles.

Bethany recently became a core member of the Dutch Chamber Choir (Nederlands Kamerkoor) where she has sung everything from Franco-Flemish polyphony to Stockhausen, working with renowned choral conductors such as Peter Dijkstra, Paul van Nevel, and Martina Batič. In addition to the Dutch Chamber Choir, Bethany sings with many Dutch ensembles including the Radio Choir (Groot Omroepkoor) and the Dutch Bach Society (Nederlandse Bachvereniging).

As a soloist, Bethany has performed major oratorio repertoire by composers such as Bach, Handel, Vivaldi and Graun. On the opera stage she has sung the amongst others roles of La Fée (Cendrillon, Massenet), Belinda (Dido and Aeneas, Purcell) and Norina (Don Pasquale, Donizetti).

In addition to singing, Bethany enjoys dancing, reading and baking – both the cooking and the eating part! She lives in the Netherlands with her partner and their very spoilt cat.

Courtenay Cleary recently graduated with a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School in New York where she studied with violin Professor Naoko Tanaka. During her time at Juilliard she was awarded the M. & E. Cohen Scholarship and the Charles H. Bechter Scholarship, and was a finalist in the 2020 violin concerto competition. She received her Bachelor of Music degree with first-class honours from the Royal Academy of Music in London where she studied with professor Maureen Smith. In 2017 Courtenay performed as a soloist for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and other distinguished guests at Westminster Abbey for the Royal Commonwealth Service. This was broadcast live on BBC television. In 2018 Courtenay again performed for the HM the Queen at Buckingham Palace for the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. During her time in London, she has performed as a soloist at prestigious venues including the Wigmore Hall, St James’ Piccadilly, the Regent Hall and Colston Hall. She recently performed Margaret Sutherland’s Violin Concerto with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra and Brisbane’s Corda Spiritus, gave the Australian premiere of David Lang’s Mystery Sonatas in Brisbane, as well as two solo recitals in the Queensland Performing Arts Centre Concert Hall. She is a Tait Memorial Trust and ABRSM scholar, and was recently awarded the Dame Joan Sutherland Award from the American Australian Association and the Guy Parsons Award from the Portland House and Australian Music Foundations. Courtenay was recently awarded a full tuition scholarship to undertake her Doctor of Philosophy in contemporary violin music at the University of Queensland. She is a member of the violin teaching faculty at both the University of Queensland and Griffith University’s Young Conservatorium Programme.

Courtenay was a member of the Patronus Quartet who in 2015 progressed to the semi-final of the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. She has performed at many international festivals including Tallinn Music Week, the Melbourne Festival, the Aldeburgh Festival, Prussia Cove and the Juilliard Chamber Music Festival. She has performed in masterclasses for esteemed artists including Julian Rachlin, Tasmin Little, Daniel Hope, the St Lawrence String Quartet, and the Borodin Quartet, from whom her own quartet received a letter of recommendation for the MICMC.

Courtenay studied at the Australian National Academy of Music from 2012-2014 with William Hennessy. During her time at the academy she played alongside many visiting artists including the Brodsky Quartet, Brett Dean, Michael Collins, The Australian Chamber Orchestra, The Aurora Orchestra, Anthony Marwood, Dale Barltrop and was concertmaster of the ANAM orchestra under the direction of Simone Young, James Judd and Nicholas Carter.

In 2011 Courtenay studied under the direction of Associate Professor Patricia Pollett at the University of Queensland. During this time she was concertmaster of the University of Queensland Chamber and Symphony Orchestras and was finalist in the university’s Bach Prize and The Howard and Gladys Sleath Prize for Strings. She was the recipient of the Sleath String Scholarship for outstanding students and was a winner of the Sid Paige & Musica Viva/4MBS Chamber Music Prize.

Hailed as a “born communicator” (The Australian), a “brilliant young musician” (Otago Times), and a “soloist of superb virtuosic skill and musicality” (Limelight), Alex Raineri (b. 1993) is active Internationally and throughout Australia as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, writer, producer and educator.

International performances include tours throughout America, Southeast Asia, United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Germany and Austria. Within Australia, Alex has appeared as a feature artist in many major festivals and venues. As a concerto soloist he has appeared with the Queensland, Tasmanian, Darwin and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, Ensemble Q, Southern Cross Soloists, Orchestra Victoria, Four Winds Festival Orchestra, Bangalow Festival Orchestra, Queensland Youth Symphony and the Queensland Pops Orchestra. He has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Radio NZ, California Capital Public Radio, ABC Classic FM and all of the Australian MBS Networks.

Alex is the Artistic Director of the annual Brisbane Music Festival. He is a passionate exponent and commissioner of contemporary music, having given 109 World Premieres + 147 Australian Premieres to date.

Major awards include the Kerikeri International Piano Competition and Australian National Piano Award. He was the recipient of the Queensland Luminary Award in the 2021 APRA/AMCOS Art Music Awards and received a Kranichsteiner Musikpries at the International Summer Courses for New Music (Darmstadt, Germany).

Notable collaborations include Andreas Ottensamer, TwoSet Violin, eighth blackbird, ELISION, Sara Macliver, Natalie Clein, Natsuko Yoshimoto, Karin Schaupp, Greta Bradman, Li Wei Qin, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Jack Liebeck, Kathryn Stott, Slava Grigoryan, Brett Dean, William Barton, Ensemble Offspring, Orava Quartet, and many others.

Additionally to a full-time performative profile, Alex is a radio-presenter on 4MBS Classic FM, a reviewer for The Music Trust’s ‘Loudmouth’, and holds associate artist positions at both the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University + University of Queensland.

Drew Gilchrist is an emerging clarinettist based in Brisbane, Australia. His endeavours as an avid chamber musician include his appearance as a guest artist with groups such as Ensemble Q and The Southern Cross Soloists alongside ARIA winning guitarist Slava Grigoryan. He has been involved in the Brisbane Festival, the Bellingen Fine Music Festival, The Sunshine Coast Chamber Music Festival, Queensland Music Trails, Coramba Chamber Music Festival and 4MBS Marathon Concerts. He has attended a number of Australian Youth Orchestra programs. In competition he has seen plenty of success, having won the Queensland Clarinet and Saxophone Inc. Competition twice and receiving the 2020 Queensland Conservatorium Ross Peters 4mbs Chamber Music Prize with his group, Ensemble Crucible. He has performed solo at the Sydney Opera House for the ENCORE showcase to a sold-out crowd and played Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto as soloist with the New South Wales Regional Youth Orchestra. Drew is passionate about new music. He has given the world premiere of Paul Dean’s solo clarinet work 4 Moments and the Queensland premiere of his Clarinet Concerto with the Conservatorium Symphony orchestra.

Miriam Niessl was born into a large musical family blessed by the joy of music. From the young age of 4, she commenced her studies under the Suzuki tutelage of Christine Dunaway and after being awarded her AMusA at 13 continued her studies with Dr Brendan Joyce, the artistic director of Camerata. As a young talent, Miriam was invited to multiple Suzuki summer and winter schools and received masterclasses from several of Australia’s and America’s most distinguished professionals. Moreover, through AUSTA-Q, Miriam has undertaken public masterclasses from Dr Robin Wilson, Violin professor of the Australian National Academy of Music and deemed the Pamela Dowsett Bursary Recipient. Through the Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s ‘Young Instrumentalist Prize’, Miriam was awarded the loan of an A.E Smith Violin and the highly memorable opportunity to perform a duet with the Concertmaster, Warwick Adeny.

As a longstanding member of the Queensland Youth Orchestras, this is Miriam’s nineth year in the organisation where she is Associate Concertmaster of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra under Simon Hewett’s Baton. These years have provided Miriam with an abundance of opportunities to perform as a soloist, in the representative quartet and on several tours to regional Queensland. The orchestra toured to Asia and Europe in 2017 where the following year Miriam was selected as Principal Second Violinist. Hence, after closely working with the renown John Curro AM MBE, it was a very touching moment for Miriam to have been part of his memorial service in 2019.

In 2021, Miriam commenced her studies at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University where she now studies under the repute Michele Walsh. Her tertiary studies are supported by the Sir Samuel Griffith Scholarship due to outstanding secondary schooling academic achievement. Miriam competed in several in house competitions including the Basil Jones Sonata Prize and the Matilda Jane Aplin Prize where she was awarded as a finalist and prize winner respectively. Miriam has immensely enjoyed her membership in the Tarilindy Quartet where the group was announced a finalist in the 4MBS chamber music prize and nominated to represent Australia in the ‘Musical Chairs’ international Chamber Music Festival in Canada.

This year, Miriam is greatly excited to participate in the Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Music Camp, perform as soloist with the Indooroopilly Chamber Orchestra and having been invited by Artistic Director Alex Raineri, make her debut performance in the Young Artist series of the Brisbane Music Festival.

Daniel Shearer is a young artist with a love and passion for the cello. Since 2020 he has learnt from famed Hungarian cellist Gyorgy Deri at the Queensland Conservatorium, where he is in his fourth year of his Bachelor in Performance. Daniel grew up performing for possums on his back deck but has since garnered a growing audience from festival appearances, recitals and competitions across Queensland. He has performed in masterclasses at the Juilliard School, taught by renowned cellists such as David Finckel, Ani Aznavoorian, Bion Tsang and Astrid Schween. As well as solo work, Daniel is a committed chamber musician having performed with faculty members of the Queensland Conservatorium. He has also played in a chamber master class with Sophie Rowell, concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Daniel plays the Widow Twankey cello on loan from Jenny Moore.

VENUE – LOYAL HOPE OF THE VALLEY LODGE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF SUPPORT

Bethany Shepherd's appearance in the 2022 festival is generously supported by Cass George.
Miriam Niessl's appearance in the 2022 festival is generously supported by Phillip Bacon Galleries.

Drew Gilchrist's appearance in the 2022 festival is generously supported by Phillip Bacon Galleries.

Daniel Shearer's appearance in the 2022 festival is generously supported by Phillip Bacon Galleries.

Alex Raineri’s appearance in the 2022 festival is generously supported by Loris Orthwein.

The Brisbane Music Festival is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.

With gratitude to the following partner organisations and funding bodies for their support.

With thanks also to Gretel Farm, Simply Classical, The Brunswick Green and the countless individuals who have privately supported the 2022 BMF.