Friday, 9th March 2012 at 8PM
St Augustine’s Catholic Church, Eaton Street, BALMAIN
‘When all these instruments are employed together, it is called the loud music’.
Johannes Tinctoris, a Flemish composer and music theorist of the Renaissance
The Sackbut, a trombone from the Renaissance and Baroque eras, and the Serpent, one of the most improbable musical instruments ever devised, blend together in a firm yet mellow tone, adding depth and colour to the strings.
The Serpent was most likely invented by a French clergyman called Canon Edmé Guillaume at Auxerre in 1590. When well played, it blends superbly with voices and gives a depth to the choral sound. During the next two hundred years after its invention, it was used as a military band instrument and later evolved into the ophicleide and tuba. As an ancient musical wind instrument, the serpent was described by J. Viret as “a type of clumsy and unsightly cornet”. Nevertheless, it can be haunting and expressive, producing a unique sound not found in any other musical timbre.
In 1720, in Koethen Bach completed his sonatas and partitas for solo violin which represent the culmination of the German tradition for unaccompanied violin. That tradition combines extreme virtuosity with the German love of complex contrapuntal textures. The first sonata of the collection in G Minor, which Stan Kornel will perform this evening, is based on the four-movement Italian model (slow-fast-slow-fast) and is analogous to the "church style" violin sonatas of Corelli. This technically ambitious sonata is remarkably florid, yet is composed over a relatively simple chordal "story" in Adagio. Fugue, the airy Siciliano and the ‘motto perpetuo’-like Finale are the most popular works in the violin repertoire.
We hope you will enjoy this unique and rarely performed early music for two trombones and the serpent. This concert also includes Italian music in trio sonatas for two violins and basso continuo, as well as a solo violin sonata by the biggest exponent of Baroque – Johann Sebastian Bach.
Our regular guest artists, Fiona Ziegler and Nick Byrne, will join us in this performance. For the first time, the Sydney Consort warmly welcomes another versatile musician, one very well-known to Australian audiences, Scott Kinmont.
Don't miss this opportunity to hear these musical works specifically written for these unique brass instruments by our greatest Italian and German composers.
ENJOY MUSIC BY
| ANON | Plainchant for serpent and continuo |
| Biaggio MARINI | Capriccio, che due violini Sonana quattro parti for 2 violins and continuo |
| Biaggio MARINI | Sonata Nona per doi Tromboni Grossi for 2 sackbuts and continuo |
| Dario CASTELLO | Sonata Quarta for 2 violins and continuo |
| Girolamo FRESCOBALDI | Canzona Prima a 3 for 2 violins, trombone and continuo |
| Andrea FALCONIERI | Passacalle & Ciaccona for 2 sackbuts & continuo |
| Antonio CALDARA | Trio Sonata in E Minor for 2 violins & continuo |
| Johann Hermann SCHEIN | Suite Pavanne-Galliarde-Courente-Allemande for 2 Sackbuts and basso continuo |
| Johann Sebastian BACH | Sonata in G Minor for violin solo |
| Johann Joseph FUX | Sonata a quarto for 2 sackbuts, 2 violins and continuo |
MUSICIANS:
| Nick Byrne, Scott Kinmont sackbuts & serpents |
| Stan Kornel, Fiona Ziegler baroque violins |
| Monika Kornel harpsichord |
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Born in Sydney, Nick Byrne completed his Bachelor’s degree at the Canberra School of Music in 1991. He subsequently undertook further postgraduate study with Charles Vernon at De-Paul University in Chicago. His other teachers have included Simone de Haan, Ian Perry, Ron Prussing, Arnold Jacobs and Michael Mulcahy.
Nick Byrne joined the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1996, prior to which he held the position of Solo Trombone with the Hofer Symphoniker in Germany. He has performed with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, Chicago Chamber Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and in 1994 was chosen by Sir Georg Solti for his Carnegie Hall Festival Orchestra.
Nick Byrne has also performed with Summit Brass, Millar Brass, Chicago Symphony Lower Brass Ensemble, Canberra Trombone Quartet (prize winner at the UMI Chamber Music Competition in Arizona, 1993), and is a founding member of the Sydney Symphony Brass Ensemble.
He is also a recognised performer on the ophicleide (an early keyed tuba) and has performed with the SSO, Australian Chamber Orchestra, World Orchestra for Peace (Moscow and St Petersburg, 2003) and in solo recitals at the Melbourne International Festival of Brass (2003 and 2009).
In 2002, Nick Byrne was the recipient of a Churchill Fellowship which allowed him to undertake ophicleide studies in Lyon, France, and in 2006 he recorded the world’s first solo ophicleide recording Back from Oblivion.
Scott Kinmont commenced his Bachelor’s degree at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music and completed his undergraduate studies at the Australian National University in Canberra. He joined the Sydney Symphony Orchestra when he was 20 and since his appointment to the orchestra, he has won two international solo competitions: the 1993 United Musical Instruments International trombone solo competition held in the United States, and the 1999 International Tubamania solo euphonium competition in Australia.
He was the recipient of the Fulbright Award for the Visual and Performing Arts in 2002, which enabled him to travel to the US to complete his Master’s degree and to appear as guest lecturer in euphonium at Northwestern University in Chicago.
Scott Kinmont has appeared as a soloist with a variety of ensembles including brass bands, jazz ensembles and orchestras. He has also appeared as a guest artist at many leading musical institutions and at many of Australia’s most important brass symposiums. In addition to his orchestral commitments, he is currently Lecturer in Trombone Studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
He collaborates with young Australian composers and has premiered several pieces written for him including a euphonium concerto by Peter Keller premiered in Chicago in 2003, and Lee Bracegirdle’s Euphonium Concerto premiered with the SSO in 2008. He has also been a member of many of Australia’s leading ensembles, including the Canberra Trombone Quartet, which finished second at the International Brass Ensemble Competition held in the US in 1993.
Born in Canberra, Stan Kornel started his violin studies with Josette Esquidin-Morgan and Ernest Llewelyn. He later studied music at the Bydgoszcz Conservatorium of Music and the Academy of Music in Lodz (Poland). Kornel was the assistant concertmaster of Pomeranian Philharmonic Orchestra, leader of the Torun Chamber Orchestra and associate concertmaster of the TV and Radio Symphony Orchestra in Lodz.
A bronze medallist at the Henryk Wieniawski International Young Violinist Competition and second prize winner at the Pomerania Violin Competition, Kornel has also participated in the International Music Camp in Umea (Sweden) where he performed both as concertmaster and in concert with Oslo Trio, and also the Jeunesses Musicale World Youth Orchestra in London and Fribourg (Switzerland).
In 1985 Kornel moved to Italy where he worked in opera theatres such as La Scala in Milan, La Fenice in Venice and the Verona Amphitheatre during the famous Summer Festival. Kornel returned to Australia in 1987 and has since performed with the Sydney Bach Ensemble, Bicentenary Trio, Gallery Players Ensemble and Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Kornel is currently a violinist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Stan Kornel was Head of Strings at the Australian International Conservatorium of Music, and holds teaching appointments at Torun Conservatorium of Music, Sydney Conservatorium of Music and International Grammar School in Ultimo, Sydney.
Stan Kornel has recorded several CDs containing works by Australian composers Dulcie Holland, Derek Strahan and Allan Holley. He also has a keen interest in the baroque violin and viola d'amore. Kornel is the founder and Artistic Director of the early music ensemble "The Sydney Consort" which performs extensively and records regularly for Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The ensemble has recorded four CD’s with invited musicians. In the past five years the ensemble toured, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, Denmark and Poland with rave reviews.
In 2006 Stan received an award from the Polish Ministry for the Arts for his contribution of promoting Polish music and culture in Australia. In 2007 Stan adjudicated in an international jury panel at the Singapore Violin Competition and recently in the Sydney Eisteddfod.
Tickets at door $30/$20 (conc)
Enq: 0416 345 489
music@sydneyconsort.com.au
www.sydneyconsort.com.au