CLARA SCHUMANN 1819-1896
Prelude and Fugue, Op. 16, No. 1 and No. 3 (composed 1845) 
arranged for string quartet by Jessica Wells 1974-

Clara Schumann led quite an extraordinary life. Of her eight children, at least three became her teaching assistants so that she could focus fully on her performing and teaching. However, the one element missing from Clara’s oeuvre was chamber music.  A piano trio and a Romanze for violin and piano are all that were produced. Her writing for piano was prolific and these relatively early works were composed and published in 1845, in between her two piano concerti and when she was just 26 years old. 

She had been married for six years, had three children and was really developing a respected performing career. As a performer, one of her most notable and remembered collaborations was with the seminal violinist, Joseph Joachim. They performed over 250 concerts together and it is curious that Clara was not tempted to write at least one work for his own string quartet. In fact, she barely composed her own music for the last four decades of her life, mainly consumed with piano transcriptions of her husband’s works. 

Clara Schumann is largely remembered for her performing and teaching career and we can only be grateful that she worked so hard to pass on her musical lineage. 

Jessica Wells is one of Australia’s busiest and most respected arrangers but more than that, she is a celebrated composer in her own right. FQ last worked with Jessica in 2013 on an arrangement of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet suite with percussionist, Claire Edwardes; an arrangement which has since gone on to have multiple performances.

MELODY EÖTVÖS 1984-
“Hope. Fear. Anything.” (composed 2022)
Commissioned by John and Irene Garran

Guest artist Ashlyn Tymms - mezzo soprano

I. Introduction
II. Valedictions
III. À Charles Thierry
IV. Dimanche
V. Interlude
VI. À Florence Jeans
VII. Salutations 

Nominated for an APRA Music Award for Orchestral Work of the Year (2019) and with commissions from ensembles such as Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Melody’s career is far reaching. Of her new work, Melody writes:

“Camille Claudel: such a remarkable woman was living in a remarkable age. Perhaps not so remarkable for women, however, since conventional society was still paternal and rigid in its view of acceptable behaviour for women. Claudel chartered her course showing all those personal characteristics mentioned by her peers. Writer Henry de Braisne said of her that she “led the way for a more enlightened treatment of women in the art world”.  Writer and critic Mathias Morhardt (who bought Claudel’s sculpture La Vague) had this to say of her:

Silent and diligent, she remains seated upon her chair. She hardly hears the long chatter of idle people around her. Preoccupied only by her task, she kneads clay and models the foot or the hand of a figurine placed in front of her. Sometimes she raises her head. She looks at the visitor with her big clear eyes, whose gaze is so quizzical and, I should say, so persistent. The she returns immediately to her interrupted task.

This work takes selected texts from Camille Claudel’s Correspondences and sets them in a string of movements that bond across and throughout the entire work.  After having spent such a long period of time connecting with Claudel’s letters in the original French (and so with my past love of the language), it became an almost impossible task to choose and settle on a comparatively small selection for this composition.  Consequently I know my work with setting her words and thoughts is far from done!  In this song cycle, however, I chose two texts that focus on her parents, and a selection of salutations and valedictions that span the 68 years of her recorded letters.”

-- Melody Eötvös

Movement I: Introduction
[no text]

Movement II: Valedictions

Let me hear from you very soon if you have the time. All yours.

Best wishes for the New Year.

With all my respect,

I kiss you. Above all, don't be unfaithful to me again.

My thanks.

Awaiting your reply, I extend my best greetings to you.

Besides, I am feeling better now, thank you.

Dear Sir, please accept my sincere thanks…

Please accept, I beg you, the expression of my friendship.

Please accept, Sir, the expression of my deepest gratitude.

Movement III - À Charles Thierry

My dear Charles

You inform me of Papa's death; this is new to me, no one has told me anything about this. When did it happened?  Try to find out and give me some details. Poor Papa, he never knew me as I really am; he was led to believe that I was an evil creature, ungrateful and wicked; It was necessary so that the other could take it all.  

I had to disappear as quickly as I could, and although I make myself as small as possible in my small corner, I am still in the way. They have already tried to lock me up in a madhouse for fear that I will harm little Jacques, and claim my rights. This is what would happen, if I had the misfortune to set foot there. Louise has got her hands on all the family's money through the protection of her friend Rodin, and as I always need a little money, however little it may be, I certainly need a little, I am the one who gets hated, when I ask for it. These things are done on purpose, because you know, Louise's interests lie with the Protestants.

Movement IV - Sunday

Sunday.

My dear Paul,

Yesterday, Saturday, I have received the fifty francs that you kindly send me and will be very useful I assure you. You see how difficulties may there are in this asylum and who knows if it will not be even worse some time from now.

I am very upset to hear that you are still suffering, let's hope that it will gradually get better. I await the visit you promised me for next summer but I don't expect it, Paris is far and God knows what will happen by then?

The reality is that they try to force me to sculpt here, as they don't succeed, they make all kinds of troubles for me. This will not convince me, on the contrary.

Movement V: Interlude 
[no text]

Movement VI - À Florence Jeans

Your favourite virtue.  I don't have any: they are all boring 

Your favourite qualities in a man. To obey his wife 

Your favourite qualities in a woman. To make her husband fret

Your favourite occupation. To do nothing

Your chief characteristics. Caprice and inconstancy

Your idea of happiness.   To marry General Boulanger

Your idea of misery. To be the mother of numerous children  

Your favourite colour and flower.  The colour that changes most and the flower that does not change

If not yourself who would you be. A carriage horse in Paris 

Where would you like to live. In the heart of Monsieur Wilson

Your favourite prose authors. Monsieur Pellerin author of the famous images

Your favourite poets. The one who does not write verse

Your favourite painter and composer.   Myself

What is your current state of mind. It is too difficult to tell. 

Movement VII - Salutations

I have such misfortune with you for each time you do me the honour of visiting me, I find myself absent.

Thank you for the encouragement you give me.

Since I have nothing to do, I write to you again.

Although I don't have the honour of knowing you, I am writing to you with a request.

You bring me great joy by telling me that you secured a commission for my small [marble bust and at a higher price than I thought.]

French-English translation by Floride Pavlovic

MARGARET SUTHERLAND 1897-1984
String Quartet No. 2 “Discussion” (composed 1954)

The catalyst for this concert program was an idea of John Garran’s to pair Flinders Quartet with Ashlyn Tymms performing the new work by Melody Eötvös based on the life of Camille Claudel. Originally to be paired with Jake Heggie’s “Into the Fire”, which also features the life of Claudel, the connection to Margaret Sutherland’s legacy felt too serendipitous, so we paired it with Katy Abbott’s “Splitting the Ambivalence” commissioned with the generous support of Kim Williams AM, himself an ardent advocate for the music and musical contribution made by Sutherland. If there is one theme for this concert, it is an ongoing legacy left by extraordinary artists.

Margaret Sutherland’s legacy is felt all over Melbourne. Most notably in the existence of our Arts Centre Melbourne, which is now being developed into the Melbourne Arts Precinct, realising Sutherland’s vision as a nucleus of creative activity spilling into the streets south of Princes Bridge. She was a tireless campaigner for contemporary art music and composers, and the improvement in the standards of music education. She helped found the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts which later became the Australia Council for the Arts. To say she was the matriarch of Australian music in the 20th century is no exaggeration.
Margaret Sutherland was born in Adelaide in 1897, studied in Melbourne, and then set sail to the UK where she studied with Arnold Bax and “a most interesting Woman composer” whose name will remain a mystery. Her fascination with Bartok, Stravinsky and Debussy is evident as she fought against what she described as the “barrenness” of contemporary musical life with so many working in musical styles which were a pale reflection of late Romanticism.
The second string quartet was written in 1954 and originally given the title “Discussion”. As its name suggests, her intention was the sharing of material between instruments and celebrating the conversational nature of chamber music. Written in a single movement approximately 10 minutes long, it has a rondo form which brings back the opening theme again and again.

KATY ABBOTT 1971-
“Splitting the Ambivalence” (composed 2022)
Commissioned by Flinders Quartet, supported by Kim Williams AM

Guest artist Ashlyn Tymms (mezzo soprano) 

I.  Artistry
II. Fairy Palace (Heronswood)
III. Dear ABC 
IV. Marriage (internal song)

Katy Abbott and Flinders Quartet’s first collaboration was in 2000. With numerous accolades including the Paul Lowin Prize (2019) for her song cycle Hidden Thoughts I: Do I Matter? her works are performed around the globe. Of her new work, she writes: 

“Splitting the Ambivalence in psychology terms is about polarising positions between two separate entities (such as a couple, two countries for example) so that any question between them becomes an either / or scenario. This or That. There is no middle ground. When reading the words of Margaret Sutherland and noticing how she is often referred as feisty, strong-willed, a get-things-done kind of woman – I wondered about her other side – the side that isn’t so visible to the public and the public perception of Margaret versus what might be the ‘real’ Margaret. 

Her writing, her letters, her music and the stories that accompany her life, paint an image of a woman unafraid to rattle the establishment, described often as “incensed” and “indignant” we are left with a sense of a woman who (somewhat admirably) took on the world and all of its irritations with great insouciance. Entitled, opinionated and sedulous in putting angry pen to paper, criticising where - in her less than humble opinion - critique was long overdue! But of more interest to me was the split – the underlying gentleness, the wistfulness, the delicacy, romanticism almost that also appears in her work and reflections. The image staring back in the mirror, the white against the black; ambivalence. It was tempting to only choose text which would portray her wonderful stubbornness and her forthright ideas, or stories that would delve into relationship dramas with colleagues and the ABC! Certainly, she cannot be genuinely captured without that insight but the gentle reminiscing and the soft-focus descriptions, in particular in her life as a child, offers completeness. I wonder at the moments when Margaret Sutherland superbly ‘belonged to herself’ and how that made the woman and the composer.” 

© Katy Abbott / Maureen Johnson. 2022

Movement I: Artistry 

Be that as it may, there is no room for doubt that certain emotional fickleness goes hand in hand with what we know as the artistic temperament.
In fact, (and I must not shirk this horrid disclosure), that we now call ‘good citizenship’, It is rarely combined with artistry in the same individual.

[Remembering a conversation]
‘You wrote it, I played it’.

[Reflection]
I now look back upon three separate slices of my life – can I have really been there? Is it possible I actually undertook that?

Movement II: ‘Fairy-Palace’ (Heronswood letter excerpts)

It looked as though the house had been there since time began;

The mellow grey-blue stone had stood alone for many years to face the fierce gales... blistering heat in summer....

Surrounded by the peace a haven such as this can offer – in spite of what the elements can do.

Paradise.

Fairy Palace

Apples, figs and pomegranates bowing low under the weight of ripe fruit.

Grandeur.

Trundle.

Reach the end of civilisation.

Feint movement when stillness broke momentarily.

....merged into the canopy of sky beyond....

Movement III: ‘Dear ABC’ (ABC letters – excerpts)

‘Dear ABC.

I’m writing to you.

One could believe, the ABC...

...hotch-potch and pure fiasco.

Dear ABC. I’m writing to you.

One could believe, the ABC...

Furthermore and what’s more...

Please rectify!

Hotch-potch and pure fiasco.

Beneath contempt!

The very strongest protest!

Furthermore...

...promiscuous... matters concerning me vitally!

Ridiculous!’

[relating to an incident regarding Margaret’s violin sonata where she accompanied the violin (on piano) for a house concert in Melbourne. Margaret had requested a rehearsal before the concert (and ABC broadcast the following morning) to no avail.]

Violinist: ‘You wrote it, I played it’.

[I said] ‘You must be more professional!’ I was astonished. We argued and argued – there was no way out. ...Lots of drinks, lots to eat. A great deal of talk. But when to begin? I was getting rattled.

Pluck a few notes.

[A] little tune up.

He was very leisurely.

...and off we went.

It got worse and worse. I stood up.

‘I cannot play anymore. Will you call a taxi please?’

It was ghastly.

I had to stop it.

But, he had another idea: ‘Margaret was pregnant’.

...But I was not.

You wrote it, I played it.

[in a letter to a friend]

I don’t claim that I deserve it but

You will smile when I tell you I have been awarded a doctorate. I don’t claim that I deserve it but

Women have to take more of a part.

Movement IV: Marriage. 
[no text]

Text: Margaret Sutherland
Text Arranged: Katy Abbott with assistance from Maureen Johnson

KATY ABBOTT
composer

Composer Katy Abbott is forensically curious about what makes us tick. Her music explores our passions, fears and motivations using contemporary musical flavours in traditional musical settings. Musing on the concepts of connection, place and humour, Abbott’s compositions are performed, published and recorded around the world. 

Abbott’s work has won numerous prestigious awards including the Boston Metro Opera ‘Gold Prize’ for Art Song, Australia Council of the Arts Fellowship (Music), 2019 Paul Lowin Prize (song-cycle) and the Albert H. Maggs Prize for Composition. Abbott has five solo albums of her work on ABC Classics and MOVE Records and her two orchestral works for education programs (The Peasant Prince and Introduced Species) are frequently programmed by the major Australian symphony orchestras.

Katy Abbott’s most recent compositions have been major works within her Hidden Thoughts series. She is Senior Lecturer in Composition at Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne and during the pandemic created The Artists’ Mentor, where she supports mid-career and established artists to build vibrant, long-term careers with impact and meaning, and without burnout.

‘In my music,’ she says, ‘I am trying to capture the little things that make us human. I seek to unpack the human side of life; humour, foibles, quirky things we do and say, beauty, grief and friendship.’

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Anonymous [1]

* Ongoing supporter of FQ musician ‘chair’

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Anonymous [3]