From the soaring clarinet riff and infectious rhythms of Rhapsody in Blue to the poignant sounds of "Summertime" in Porgy and Bess, George Gershwin gave the world some of the most memorable music ever written.

In this program, Bramwell Tovey will conduct and play the jazz-inflected piano solos in Rhapsody in Blue. And Canadian soprano Tracy Dahl will make her Sydney Symphony debut with favourites from the Gershwin songbook, including "They can't take that away from me" and "Fascinating rhythm".

Join us for this tribute to Gershwin the pianist, Gershwin the spinner of songs and Gershwin the man we love.

GERSHWIN
Cuban Overture
Rhapsody in Blue
Gershwin Songbook
Catfish Row – Symphonic Suite from Porgy and Bess

Bramwell Tovey conductor/ piano
Tracy Dahl soprano

Live webcast
This concert will streamed live via webcast thanks to Telstra BigPond and ABC Classic FM on Mon 21 May at 7pm.
Visit bigpondmusic.com/sydneysymphony for more information





AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 - GERSHWIN Cuban Overture
Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Chailly
DECCA 478 2687

Track 2 - GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue
Ivan Davis (piano) with the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Lorin Maazel
DECCA ELOQUENCE 458 174-2

Track 3 - GERSHWIN They can't take that away from me (from Shall we dance)
Barbara Hendricks (soprano) with Katia and Marielle Labèque (piano)
DECCA 478 2687

Track 4 - GERSHWIN Catfish Row - Symphonic Suite from 'Porgy and Bess':  Porgy Sings
Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Levine
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 477 6677

Audio kindly supplied by Silver Partner Universal Music

Think of Wagner, think of opera - opera on an epic scale. But in his Siegfried Idyll - birthday music written for his wife - he demonstrates just how deftly he can write in miniature.

Whether Wagner was writing something on a massive scale or intensely felt music for a small ensemble there's one thing that's always obvious, says Richard Gill: he has a sure sense of scale and an instinct for endless melody.

WAGNER Siegfried Idyll

Richard Gill conductor

Discover Wagner then join us for Wagner Under the Sails with Simone Young (9, 10, 11 August).

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Tracks 1 to 4 - WAGNER Siegfried Idyll: excerpts
Academy of St Martin in the Fields directed by Sir Neville Marriner
DECCA 478 2759

Audio kindly supplied by Silver Partner Universal Music

Music and sport don't really mix, but if you had to pick a piano concerto for the Olympics it might well be Brahms's Second Piano Concerto. It's huge in scale and character - full of confidence and power -  and in this concert French pianist Philippe Bianconi will be tackling a solo part that's one of the most challenging in the repertoire.

1930s Soviet Russia was no comfortable place to be - Shostakovich kept a suitcase packed in case he was arrested in the night. Fear and anguish kept company with the optimism of propaganda, and both emerge in Shostakovich's Sixth Symphony. Its emotional heart is the tragic first movement; then the symphony adopts a mask of thrilling energy for its race to the finish.

BRAHMS Piano Concerto No.2
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No.6

Oleg Caetani conductor
Philippe Bianconi piano

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 - BRAHMS Piano Concerto No.2: I Allegro ma non troppo
Track 2 - BRAHMS Piano Concerto No.2: IV Allegretto grazioso
Nelson Freire (piano) with the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester conducted by Riccardo Chailly
DECCA ELOQUENCE 475 7639
Track 3 - SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No.6:  II Allegro
Track 4 - SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No.6:  III Presto
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy
DECCA 475 8749

Audio kindly supplied by Silver Partner Universal Music

Presented by Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

DUE TO OVERWHELMING DEMAND 4TH SHOW, 16 JUNE, NOW ON SALE!

Pop sensation and legendary songstress, Tina Arena, makes a triumphant return to Australia in 2012 for a series of stellar live performances across the country, including with the renowned Sydney Symphony.

Her loyal Australian audience will be treated to magnificent arrangements of her repertoire – as broad and diverse as her amazing career - specifically arranged for a symphony orchestra.

‘This was the best pop-meets-classical show I have ever seen... joined by a small rock band, the Orchestra was simply breathtaking... this was a musical partnership which moved together seamlessly and with a generosity and such openness that almost every instrument became thrillingly distinct.’
The West Australian

Music Lovers should not miss this opportunity to see one of Australia’s brightest stars performing with the acclaimed Sydney Symphony.

‘The concert reminded you what truly great songs and joyful musical partnerships are all about’
The West Australian

Watch Tina performs Maybe This Time, recorded live at Hamer Hall, Melbourne in 2009:

Two Austrian composers, two monuments of music - this will be one of the most profoundly moving concerts of the 2012 season.

Alban Berg's Violin Concerto was dedicated to "the memory of an angel", the beautiful Manon Gropius (daughter of Alma Mahler and the Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius) who died just 18 years old. This is deeply felt music that transcends the heartache of its inspiration.

Then, over the course of 70 minutes, Anton Bruckner builds a cathedral of sound and fills it with turbulent power, rhythmic vitality, brooding tragedy and radiant serenity. If you're new to Bruckner, then the concert hall is the place to hear his music: fully surrendered to the mighty sound of the symphony orchestra and Bruckner's epic vision.

BERG Violin Concerto
BRUCKNER Symphony No.8 (Nowak 1890)

Donald Runnicles conductor
Julian Rachlin violin

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 - BERG Violin Concerto: I Andante Allegro
Track 2 - BERG Violin Concerto: II Allegro - Adagio
Arthur Grumiaux (violin) with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Igor Markevitch
DECCA ELOQUENCE 480 0481

Track 3 - BRUCKNER Symphony No.8: II Scherzo (Allegro moderato)
Track 4 - BRUCKNER Symphony No.8: IV Finale (Feierlich, nicht schnell)
Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Sir Georg Solti
DECCA ELOQUENCE 442 9235
Audio kindly supplied by Silver Partner Universal Music

In 2008, a couple of months after Kevin Rudd said 'sorry' to the Stolen Generations, the Sydney Symphony premiered a groundbreaking collaboration between composers William Barton and Matthew Hindson, Kalkadungu. This vibrant meeting of Indigenous Australian and Western music won a standing ovation from young and old. Now we're excited to bring it back in a well-deserved reprise.

In this program, it's joined by even newer music: Stumble to Grace, a piano concerto composed especially for Orli Shaham and David Robertson by American Steven Mackey.

And framing the thrilling effects of solo virtuosity and haunting drama are two 'classical' symphonies: Mozart's ambitious Paris Symphony and Prokofiev's 20th-century take on Haydn.

MOZART Symphony No.31 (Paris)
MACKEY Stumble to Grace - Piano Concerto (Australian premiere)
BARTON & HINDSON Kalkadungu
PROKOFIEV Classical Symphony

David Robertson conductor
William Barton didjeridu
Orli Shaham piano

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 - MOZART Symphony No.31 in D, K297 (Paris): 3rd movement
Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Karl Böhm
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON ELOQUENCE 463 230-2

Track 2 - MACKEY [sample work] Tuck and Roll, for electric guitar and orchestra: excerpt
New World Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas with the composer as soloist

Track 3 - PROKOFIEV Classical Symphony: I Allegro
Track 4 - PROKOFIEV Classical Symphony: III Gavotta (Non troppo allegro)
Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy
DECCA 470 528-2

Audio kindly supplied by Silver Partner Universal Music
and by composer Steve Mackey

Two classic symphonies and a hot-off-the-press concerto with its dedicatees as performers - this is what live music is all about.

American composer Steven Mackey wrote his piano concerto Stumble to Grace especially for pianist Orli Shaham and her husband David Robertson. Be among the first to hear this music from a composer who's in touch with fundamental musical instincts: the urge to sing and to dance and the search for transcendence.

Framing the excitement of solo virtuosity are two "classical" symphonies: Mozart's ambitious and crowd-pleasing Paris Symphony and Prokofiev's roller coaster of a tribute to Haydn.

MOZART Symphony No.31 (Paris)
MACKEY Stumble to Grace - Piano Concerto
PROKOFIEV Classical Symphony

David Robertson conductor
Orli Shaham piano

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 - MOZART Symphony No.31 in D, K297 (Paris): 1st movement
Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Karl Böhm
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON ELOQUENCE 463 2302

Track 2 - MACKEY [sample work] Eating Greens, for orchestra: excerpt
New World Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas

Track 3 - PROKOFIEV Classical Symphony: II Larghetto
Track 4 - PROKOFIEV Classical Symphony: IV Molto vivace
Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy
DECCA 470 5282

Audio kindly supplied by Silver Partner Universal Music
and by composer Steve Mackey

In what's possibly his most popular creation, Ralph Vaughan Williams eavesdrops on an Elizabethan world of stained-glass beauty, conjuring up the atmosphere of an English cathedral.

Thomas Adès also nods to the past in his violin concerto, although the result has the dazzling verve of a contemporary voice renowned for its energy and imagination. The music journeys through perpetual motion to a fierce Baroque lament and on to the playful finale - the soloist spiralling above a contemporary dance beat.

Tchaikovsky's impassioned Sixth Symphony runs a gamut of emotions. There's the confidence of the first movement - thirsty for life, there's malevolence and false triumph, and the haunting mood of the finale. This is music in which to hear the Sydney Symphony in all its elegance, brilliance and power.

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
ADÈS Violin Concerto - Concentric Paths
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.6, Pathétique

David Robertson conductor
Anthony Marwood violin

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 - VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis
Academy of St Martin in the Fields directed by Sir Neville Marriner
DECCA ELOQUENCE 442 8341

Track 2 - TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.6, Pathétique: I Adagio
Track 3 - TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.6, Pathétique: II Allegro con grazia
Track 4 - TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.6, Pathétique: IV Finale
Russian National Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Pletnev
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 477 8699

Audio kindly supplied by Silver Partner Universal Music