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Richard Wise is a composer from Margaret River, Western Australia who has spent his life teaching piano. His composition "Adagio" was originally conceived as the slow movement for a symphony but now stands alone. It opens with a funereal theme and builds through climaxes to a triumphant conclusion in a major key.

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64 views

Program Notes

Richard Wise is a composer from Margaret River, Western Australia who has spent his life teaching piano. His composition "Adagio" was originally conceived as the slow movement for a symphony but now stands alone. It opens with a funereal theme and builds through climaxes to a triumphant conclusion in a major key.

Uploaded by

Ben Hogan
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Richard Wise: Adagio

Born and educated in Margaret River, Richard has spent the best part of his life teaching piano in
South West WA. His compositions for orchestra include several symphonies and a tone-poem, Les
Bijoux (‘The Jewels’), commissioned in 2001 by the Margaret River Arts Council for a performance at
the Leeuwin Estate Winery. The Adagio was first conceived as the slow movement of an early
symphony, but is now intended primarily as a stand-alone piece. Opening with a funereal theme in f
minor, the Adagio builds slowly in waves through successively larger climaxes to a triumphal
conclusion in F major, with the main theme now recast in the major mode.

Interviews with David Pye (conductor) and Richard Wise (composer), 5 th December 2010

Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel Overture

The German composer Engelbert Humperdinck wrote a total of six operas, of which all can be
described as ‘fairy tales’ or ‘stories of magic’. The most popular of these, Hansel and Gretel, was
written at the suggestion of Humperdinck’s sister, who had written a collection of songs based on
the popular fairy tale as a Christmas present for her children. Ever since the opera’s première on
23rd December 1893, it has been closely associated with Christmastime, and performances often
take place towards the end of the year. The overture features a horn chorale of exquisite
tenderness, as well as other, folk-inspired melodies which anticipate the fear and excitement of
Hansel and Gretel’s encounter with the Gingerbread Witch.

Hutchinson Concise Dictionary of Music; Oxford Companion to Music; Hansel and Gretel Wiki;
http://immaculatasymphony.org/past/Nov88.html (saved)

Schubert: Symphony No. 5

In 1813 Schubert completed his education and began to work as a school teacher, a job which he
despised. Over the next three years he would occupy every available hour composing. Between the
ages of 16 and 19 Schubert experimented with every available musical genre, producing an
astounding number of compositions including, among many others, five symphonies and over two
hundred and fifty songs. Schubert appears to have preferred learning by experience and by studying
the works of past masters, rather than boring, prescriptive textbook. Thus the last of the youthful
symphonies, No. 5 in Bb Major, shows a clear debt to Mozart. It is a bright, charming work
communicated within a very clear structure which avoids some of the complexities of Schubert’s
mature technique. The instrumentation of this symphony is reduced – clarinets, trumpets and
timpani are excluded – and this contributes to the lightness of mood which characterises this
vivacious work.

The Symphony (Vol 1) Ed. Robert Simpson; http://symphonysalon.blogspot.com/2005/12/schubert-


fifth-symphony.html (saved); Symphony No. 5 Wiki; Oxford Companion to Music

Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1

The atmosphere of tragic drama pervasive in Brahms’ first Piano Concerto is easily related to the
circumstances of its composition. Brahms agonised over the concerto for six years before achieving
its first performance in 1859, and continued to correct and alter the work afterwards. Not only this,
but in 1854, Brahms’ close friend Robert Schumann attempted suicide for the first time. He was
committed to an asylum in Bonn where he would die two years later, in 1856. The first, tempestuous
movement, marked Maestoso, introduces the theme of despair on a grand scale, while the second
movement, Adagio, is more stately and evokes a funereal mood. The concluding Rondo movement
brings this gigantic tragedy to a close on a note of turbulent tempestuousness.

The Concerto by Robert Simpson

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