Allan commenced his tertiary music studies by attending the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in 1986. After 10 years he had graduated with a Diploma, graduate Diploma and Bachelor of Music from the conservatorium, another Graduate Diploma from the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts and in 1996 a Master of Music postgraduate degree in cello performance from the Australian Nataional University.
Allan has played in many orchestras including the Australian Youth Orchestra, The Queensland Orchestra and the canberra Symphony Orchestra. In 1994 he toured North Queensland with British pianist Anthony Peebles as part of the Queensland Arts Council program. He has performed concertos with the Bundaberg civic Orchestra, the Sinfonia of St Andrews and with Brisbane Symphony Orhcestra in recent years.
Allan conducted Mandolins in Brisbane for 10 years and he is an active member of MAGA (Music Arrangers Guild of Australia), acting as arranger or copyist for other local composers. Composing is another interest for Allan and he has published a Recessional for Organ Op 6 No 2 (via Len Fischer Music, Canberra). Several other works have been performed and are now being prepared for publication.
Program Notes
Matthew Hoey (1967 - )
'Twilight'
Matthew Hoey graduated from the Queensland Conservatorium with a Bachelor of Music in 1990 and in 1991 with a Graduate Diploma in Performance. In 2006 he gained a Graduate Diploma in Education from the University of Southern Queensland.
He has played with the Queensland Philharmonic, Symphony and Pops orchestras, as well as the Hunter orchestra in Newcastle. He leads the cello section in Brisbane Symphony Orchestra.
Matthew currently teaches strings for Education Queensland. He composes in his spare time. He would like to acknowledge the generous support of Q150 in making this project possible.
About this composition he writes:
"The 150th anniversary of the foundation of Queensland set me thinking about the passage of time and with it, the passing on of the people and things around us. At first glance this might sound rather bleak. However, the finite nature of life (or of love, as in 'Grey Days') can be represented with a sense of acceptance, even hope. 'Twilight' would hardly be the first to attempt to do so - the Vier letzte Lieder of Richard Strauss are an outstanding example.
With this in mind, the five poems that I have chosen to set for 'Twilight' represent a journey from the bitterness of loss (in 'All You that Pass') to the gentle acceptance and hope of 'Crossing the Bar'."
Sir Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934)
Cello Concerto Op. 85
Elgar's Cello Concerto Op. 85 was the last important work by this renowned composer. He started writing the concerto in 1918 soon after the end of World War 1, premiering the work in October 1919 at the London Symphony Orchestra's first post-war concert. The premiere was given a lukewarm reception owing to insufficient rehearsal time.
This cello concerto is arguably the most emotive concerto ever written for the instrument. The horrors of WW1 were still much in the public mind and haunting melodies convey emotions of sorrow, loss, grief and anger. But if these were the only features of this work then it would not have the popularity it enjoys now, in spite of the composers reputation and prowess. There is also wistfulness, hope, playfulness and fond memories of what once had been. After this concerto, at age 62, Elgar composed no more pieces, either major or incidental in nature. In the early 1930's he started to write down ideas for future endeavours but died in 1934 at the age of 77.
Although Elgar is looking back at memories of the recent past with this concerto, there are elements that also look forward. This concerto has four movements instead of the standard three and for such a sizeable-scored work it is written with restraint for the most part, Elgar often using the orchestra as background tone colour, allowing the soloist to paint emotive melodies. Unusually for a 20th century work, epic melody is the main driving force behind this concerto and its twisting and changing takes the listener on a deep thoughtful journey.
The first movement opens with a recitative for cello, soon followed by the violas introducing the main theme. From there it grows and undergoes many changes until easing into the second movement without a break. The second movement starts with similar chords to the opening in pizzicato. However its character quickly transforms to a scherzo. The third movement, Adagio, has its moments of deep lament and leads almost without break into the fourth movement. The final movement, a rondo, is a melting pot of themes both new and previously heard. Near the very end the opening chords are sounded before the final flourish to an unmistakably definite ending.
Elgar himself said about this concerto, "a real large work and I think good and alive". The word 'large' mostly referring to the emotional content of this vibrant piece.
Felix Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847)
Symphony No 3 in A minor Op 56 'Scottish'
In 1829 the young Mendelssohn travelled to Britain to conduct the London Philharmonic Society and to give piano recitals. It was during this trip that he and his friend Carl Klingemann continued on up to Scotland where he was particularly impressed by the macabre history of Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh and by the wildness of the Scottish west coast. Legacies of this holiday in the shape of the well-loved Hebrides Overturer and the Scottish Symphony remain to this day, to be enjoyed by music lovers the world over.
Begun in 1829 but not completed until 1842, the Scottish Symphony was first performed in Leipzig on 3rd March 1842. It was dedicated to Queen Victoria, who expressed her appreciation in a very tangible way by commissioning a statue of the composer for the re-built Crystal Palce in 1854.
The symphony exhibits a basic structure of four main movements. However, Mendelssohn decided that it should be played without breaks, the better to delineate the contrasting movements while yet achieving a feeling of unity. The work is anything but programmatic. However, it succeeds in capturing the composer's reactions to the fascination of a new country. We hear this in the elegiac introduction which suggests the gloom of Holyrood Palace, and more happily, in the wonderful scherzo movement built on a five-note bagpipe theme which contains the typical 'Scotch Snap' rhythm.
There was one reaction to travel perhaps best forgotten by the unfortunate composer. Klingemann wrote after the particularly rough journey to the Hebrides: "He gets along better with the seas an artist than as a man with a stomach."
