Entertainment

Neil Armfield Directs Australian Chamber Orchestra In ‘Reflections On Gallipoli’. 14-27 March

Gallipoli was not just a battle, but also an epic tale of courage, stubborn endurance and a mutual respect for the enemy. This concert explores an unexpected camaraderie that developed for a short time between Australian and Turkish combatants during the truce called on Monday 24 May to bury both sides’ dead

Refelctions on GallipoliYou, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.” Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

The invocation by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who became known as the father of modern Turkey, is inscribed on the memorial stone overlooking ANZAC Cove in Gallipoli. It provides the inspiration for the ACO’s artistic director, Richard Tognetti, large-scale theatre specialist, Nigel Jamieson, and one of Australia’s greatest storytellers, Neil Armfield, to bring to the stage their exploration of the ANZAC story through music, spoken word and imagery.

Gallipoli was not just a battle, but also an epic tale of courage, stubborn endurance and a mutual respect for the enemy. This concert explores an unexpected camaraderie that developed for a short time between Australian and Turkish combatants during the truce called on Monday 24 May to bury both sides’ dead.  The downing of weapons gave the first opportunity for all to see the horrifying effects of the new technologies of war.  A young Turkish Captain reflected “At this spectacle even the most gentle must feel savage, and the most savage must weep.”

Troops from both sides left their trenches to confront their enemy. What they found were not the barbarians characterised in the press, but young men not so dissimilar to themselves – struggling to survive the similar horrors of death, decaying bodies, flies and dysentery. The sense of fellowship and respect appears to have been almost instantaneous and given the circumstances, extraordinary – in one brief day it appeared that warring men recognised that their similarities were more profound than their differences.

From that day, the relationship between the Australians and the Turks changed forever and endured throughout the campaign.  It lives on in the words that Atatürk addressed to the mothers of the Australian fallen, and in the new work for voice and orchestra, Our Sons, composed by Carl Vine for this concert, and sung by soprano Taryn Fiebig.

The concert fuses a powerful music program interwoven with spoken word. Actors, Yalin Ozucelik and Nathaniel Dean, recount the letters and diaries of the young soldiers meeting their enemies in a sea of bodies in no man’s land, over additional music written by Carl Vine. Supported by potent contemporary photographs taken by the young soldiers and war correspondents as they confronted the effects of modern armaments, the production uses projection, shadow, silhouette and lighting to give a moving reflection on the cost of war and our shared humanity.

In his quest to bring Turkey into modernity, Atatürk arranged for a handful of Turkish composers to study with Bela Bartók.  So began a new generation of composers who absorbed Western influences while developing a national voice of their own, as exemplified by Nevit Kodalli’s lament, Adagio for String Orchestra. Bartók’s ethnomusicological expeditions into the Levantine influenced his own style as a composer, including his Second String Quartet which was written during the middle years of World War One.

For the Turks, the Gallipoli campaign was known as the Battle of Cannakale. The traditional song, Cannakale, sung in this concert by Taryn Fiebig, is associated with the disastrous yet heroic Turkish stand at Gallipoli, and mourns lost youth. The fiercely patriotic Ceddin Deden was sung by Turkish troops as they prepared for battle and during the fighting at Gallipoli.

Elgar’s Sospiri and Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending were both written in 1914. Sospiri is uncharacteristically melancholic in mood and was perhaps portentous of events to follow.  It was the first work by a major composer to be premiered after the declaration of war, bidding farewell to a comfortable world that would be devastated by hostilities.  The Lark Ascending was sketched just before Vaughan Williams left for active service. The experience of serving seems only to have heightened his nostalgia for a simpler time. After his return to England in 1919, he fine-tuned his most popular work and eventually orchestrated it as a souvenir of a time gone by.

Olympic gold medallist, war hero, and composer, Frederick Septimus Kelly, was an Australian-born composer, living in London when war broke out. He joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve with his friend, the poet Rupert Brooke.  When Brooke fell ill and died on the way to Gallipoli, Kelly was by his side. Wounded in campaign, during his recovery Kelly wrote his Elegy for Strings, in memory of his fellow fallen soldier.

Audio description is being used during the concert at the Sydney Opera House on Sunday 15 March. Audio description is a live, oral commentary of the visual elements of the concert, delivered to audience members who are blind or have a vision-impairment. The program is delivered by trained audio describers, and is relayed via an in-house receiver and earpiece.

Richard Tognetti Director & Violin

Neil Armfield Director

 

REPERTOIRE

BARTÓK String Quartet No. 2: Allegro molto capriccioso

KELLY Elegy for Strings ‘In Memoriam Rupert Brooke’

TRADITIONAL Cannakale

TRADITIONAL Ceddin Deden

ELGAR Sospiri

NEVIT KODALLI Adagio for String Orchestra

TRADITIONAL Kaçsam Bırakıp Senden Uzak Yollara Gitsem

VINE Our Sons (World Premiere) with text by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS The Lark Ascending

 

PERFORMANCES

Canberra – Llewellyn Hall. Saturday 14 March, 8pm

Sydney Opera House – Concert Hall. Sunday 15 March, 2pm

Melbourne – Hamer Hall. Monday 16 March, 8pm & Sunday 22 March, 2.30pm

Adelaide Town Hall. Tuesday 17 March, 8pm

Perth Concert Hall. Wednesday 18 March, 8pm

Sydney – City Recital Hall. Saturday 21 March 7pm,Tuesday 24 March 8pm,Wednesday 25 March 7pm,Friday 27 March, 1.30pm

Brisbane – QPAC. Monday 23 March, 8pm

 

Info & Tickets

 https://www.aco.com.au

https://www.aco.com.au/whats_on/event_detail/gallipoli

 

 

 

 

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