After four sell-out shows at the Sydney Opera House in 2007 and an Australia-wide tour, The Whitlams return to make magic with the Sydney Symphony at the Sydney Opera House in December. Hold the dates for Tim Freedman and the boys, as they celebrate the anniversary of their quadruple platinum, Aria breakthrough album,  Eternal Nightcap which will be played in its entirety. Featuring all their best-selling hits from No Aphrodisiac to Charlie No. 2 and You Sound Like Louis Burdett, expect an evening of soulful and heart-warming music.

Just three shows - and the only Sydney performances in 2009 - so organise your friends for the best night out you'll share all year.

“…the kind of arrangements which assume intelligence not just on stage but in the audience. It’s wit and risk and flair.” Bernard Zuel, Sydney Morning Herald

Watch The Whitlams when they played with the orchestra back in 2007 on
BigPond Webcasts.
 

The story goes that Haydn, seeking to rival the success of Handel’s Messiah, was handed a Bible and advised to begin at the beginning. He did, and created his magnificent oratorio, The Creation (it was also the first bilingual choral work, composed simultaneously in German and English).

From its amazing Representation of Chaos to the divine bliss of the conclusion (this is Adam and Eve before the Fall), The Creation is a masterpiece, and it created such a buzz at its premiere in 1798 that performances sold out and police were hired for crowd control.

Listeners were unanimous – they had never experienced anything like it. Nor will you. This program marks the Australian conducting debut of Martin Haselböck, one of the most stylish and insightful interpreters of the Classical style, and Haydn’s angels and mortals will be sung by an international cast, including Australia’s own Steve Davislim.

HAYDN The Creation (sung in English)

Martin Haselböck conductor
Sara Macliver soprano (Gabriel, Eve)*
Steve Davislim tenor (Uriel)
Florian Boesch baritone (Raphael, Adam)
Cantillation chorus 

PRE-CONCERT TALKS

Pre-concert talk by Tony Cane in the Northern Foyer, 45 minutes before each performance.


* Please note, Joan Rodgers has had to withdraw from this concert.

The Beach Boys are surfing into the Sydney Opera House to play with the Sydney Symphony for two nights only! Catch the vocal harmonies of summer’s hottest act as the boys sing all their greatest hits including “Good Vibrations”, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “Kokomo” with the full rich sound of the Sydney Symphony. Featuring original band members Mike Love and Bruce Johnson, the shows promise to be the feel-good event of 2010!

New date announced!
Due to overwhelming demand a 3rd concert - Saturday 6
February - has been added. On sale Monday 2 November at 9am.

They say the beginning is a very good place to start. With Mahler that’s true, and as we set off with this 20-something composer there are twin strands to be discovered – symphonies and songs. The Songs of a Wayfarer follow the fortunes of a roaming apprentice, bereft and alone. It’s a melancholy subject, but in Mahler’s hands it’s beautifully poignant. On the other hand, his first symphony, composed around the same time, catches him in a good mood and – for Mahler! – a concise frame of mind.

Here is the emerging Mahler sound in music that sings and revels in youthful humour. There’s irony too. This is the symphony that famously turns “Frère Jacques” into a funeral march: the forest animals following a dead hunter. Blumine is a literal flowering of musical beauty, once a part of the symphony and recovered from the cutting room floor. From one appealing moment to the next, this is the perfect concert to discover the genuine Mahler voice.

R STRAUSS Don Juan
MAHLER Blumine
MAHLER Songs of a Wayfarer
MAHLER Symphony No.1

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Markus Eiche baritone


This concert is currently only available as part of a package.  Visit the Masters Series page for more information.

Tickets go on general sale from 4 January 2010.

This is inspired music. It transcends symphonic form to celebrate the “Creative Spirit” of its opening hymn and the redeeming power of love. Mahler said that it came to him as if it had been dictated, a creative outpouring over an astonishing two months. Imagine, he says, the whole universe beginning to sing and resound, and not mere human voices but planets and suns.

Of course, you don’t have to imagine – these performances of Mahler 8, the first in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall for nearly 20 years, will bring a musical universe to life before your eyes and ears.

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Annalena Persson soprano
Marina Shaguch soprano
Sara Macliver soprano
Dagmar Pecková mezzo-soprano
Bernadette Cullen mezzo-soprano
Simon O’Neill tenor
Markus Eiche baritone
Martin Snell bass
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs
WASO Chorus
Sydney Children’s Choir
and other Australian Choirs

Subscribers Advance Purchase Priority
If you are a subscriber for our 2010 series, tickets are currently available for Mahler 8 via our box office on 02 8215 4600.

For more about subscriptions take a look at the Concert Series for 2010.

Tickets go on general sale from 4 January 2010.

 

On this visit Nigel and his friends will be putting the jazz into Bach and the art into the standards of Duke Ellington. Sure, he’ll stomp about the stage and he’ll talk to you like the others don’t, and you can be sure the concert won’t come out till late. But you can also bet on great music and great artistry all night long. Wicked.

A unique mix of highlights from the music of Johann Sebastian BACH and Duke ELLINGTON

Nigel Kennedy violin-director

 

On this visit Nigel and his friends will be putting the jazz into Bach and the art into the standards of Duke Ellington. Sure, he’ll stomp about the stage and he’ll talk to you like the others don’t, and you can be sure the concert won’t come out till late. But you can also bet on great music and great artistry all night long. Wicked.

A unique mix of highlights from the music of Johann Sebastian BACH and Duke ELLINGTON

Nigel Kennedy violin-director

 

His songs have a sophistication and craft to rival any composer and the rich symphonic sound complements the inventiveness of decades. This is your chance to hear an extraordinary songwriter in concert with Sydney’s symphony orchestra.

Miss this one and you’ll wake up crying.

A program of Burt Bacharach’s
greatest hits.

Burt Bacharach piano