Whats On

LISTEN TO SAMPLES

Use < > buttons to scroll tracks - see below for listings.

Mendelssohn’s tender miniatures, his Songs without Words, are the springboard for inspiration; his grand “Scottish” sonata-fantasy evokes Celtic harps and the misty Highlands in the spirit of Beethoven’s “Moonlight”. Chopin comes into his own in three pieces that reveal the poignancy, the brilliance and the richness of his music.

The conclusion of this musical feast is a landmark in the history of the piano repertoire – a complete sonata in every way, demanding Romantic feeling, technical command, intellect and charisma.

Hear Bernd Glemser play Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto in the EnergyAustralia Master Series (22, 24, 25 September) and Thursday Afternoon Symphony (23 September).

 

MENDELSSOHN
Eight Songs without Words
Fantasie (Sonate écossaise), Op.28
CHOPIN Two Nocturnes, Op.27 Scherzo No.4 in E, Op.54
LISZT Sonata in B minor

 

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – MENDELSSOHN Songs without Words: Spinning Song, Op.67 No.4
Daniel Barenboim DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 453 0612
Track 2 – CHOPIN Nocturne in D flat, Op.27 No.2
Vladimir Ashkenazy DECCA 475 8048
Tracks 3 and 4 – LISZT Sonata in B minor
Alfred Brendel PHILIPS 475 8247

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music

Currently available for purchase:
Mendelssohn Songs without Words
Chopin Nocturnes
Liszt

Mix it all up with folk mythology, authentic jazz, and real Parisian taxi horns and you get the heady impression of music at its most vital.

The 1920s were an amazing era of cross-fertilisation and mutual inspiration: as Gershwin was putting the concert hall into jazz with his Rhapsody in Blue, Darius Milhaud on the other side of the Atlantic was capturing the chaos and steamy vitality of Harlem for the ballet theatre.

Where did the bold experiments take us? Duke Ellington, Leonard Bernstein and John Adams complete the itinerary: New York, Paris, and the world!

ADAMS The Chairman Dances – Foxtrot for orchestra
MILHAUD The Creation of the World
GERSHWIN An American in Paris
BERNSTEIN Prelude, Fugue and Riffs
GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue
ELLINGTON Harlem

Kristjan Järvi conductor
Michael Kieran Harvey piano
Francesco Celata clarinet

Some music takes no prisoners. The composer’s creative vision can be so clear and compelling that no allowance is made for performer or listener. Should we be surprised if this is the kind of music that ends up a masterpiece? We bring Beethoven and Stravinsky together with two pieces that shocked their first listeners even as they won admirers.

Renaud Capuçon is the intrepid soloist in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto – symphonic in scope and challenging at every turn. Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring makes for a pulsing, overwhelming finale: a classic for us today, but still revealing its power to amaze.

BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto
STRAVINSKY The Rite of Spring

Kristjan Järvi conductor
Renaud Capuçon violin

Thomas Adès’ Asyla is huge, and it calls for a huge orchestra. We meet the challenge by joining forces with the youthful talents of our exceptional mentoring orchestra, the Sydney
Sinfonia, in our very first “Side-by-Side” concert. With old hands and fresh faces we’ll form a super orchestra to play this madhouse of a piece with its thrilling contrasts and pop culture influences – The Rite of Spring meets club music.

Maxwell Foster is another youthful talent, and he’ll be performing the concerto that won him the ABC Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year award in 2008 when he was 16. This concerto isn’t a chart topper for nothing: Tchaikovsky marries virtuoso power to his famous soaring melodies for the perfect blend of brilliance and poetry. Lucid orchestral colours and dancing rhythms frame an intoxicating concert.

P STANHOPE Fantasia on a Theme by Vaughan Williams
TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No.1
ADÈS Asyla*
TCHAIKOVSKY Nutcracker: Suite*

Richard Gill conductor
Thomas Adès conductor*
Maxwell Foster piano
Sydney Sinfonia(Side-by-Side with
the Sydney Symphony)*

TEA & SYMPHONY - 22 OCT
Short program: Stanhope and Tchaikovsky concerto

When Korean pianist Joyce Yang won the Van Cliburn silver medal she was only 19 years old – her captivating presence and musical authority belied her petite appearance. Since then she’s made her New York Philharmonic debut with Lorin Maazel and begun appearing with some of leading conductors of our age – they all say she’s a musician to watch. Her playing has been praised for its grace and wit, and its combination of musicianly refinement and Romantic flair.

In her imaginative program for Sydney, Joyce Yang will set the scene with music of our own time – the spectacular and magical Gargoyles of Lowell Liebermann and the impulsive rhythms of Carl Vine’s irresistible piano sonata, commissioned for the Sydney Dance Company. Debussy, Chopin and Liszt’s re-imagining of Wagner provide elegant impressions. And the finale is a late work of Liszt – a dazzling blend of two Spanish dances, one dark-hued and compelling, the other full of spontaneous vigour.

L LIEBERMANN Gargoyles
DEBUSSY Estampes
VINE Piano Sonata No.1
CHOPIN Introduction and Rondo, Op.16
WAGNER arr. LISZT Isolde’s Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde LISZT Spanish Rhapsody

Tchaikovsky’s greatest masterpieces were written for the theatre. Discover the lyrical impulse of his music when Richard Gill unpacks three scenes from his ballets Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker.

Inspired by the Benedictine Abbey of New Norcia in Western Australia, Peter Sculthorpe’s tiny piece for brass and percussion joins the chanting refrains of a Latin hymn with tribal drumming.

Discover Tchaikovsky then join us for Russian Rococo (November) and our Tchaikovsky Spectacular (December). There’s more Tchaikovsky earlier in the year with Serenade for Strings (June) and the First Piano Concerto(October).

TCHAIKOVSKY Sleeping Beauty: Panorama
TCHAIKOVSKY Nutcracker: Arabian Dance and Apotheosis SCULTHORPE New Norcia

Richard Gill conductor

These are the composers who give us orchestral colour, sweeping melodies and vibrant exoticism, the composers who temper Germanic convention with brilliance and fantasy. Which all makes for a perfect match when we bring a Russian conductor and a French soloist together to perform vividly imagined music with an Oriental cast.

Let your imagination loose on the tender Adagio and thrilling dances that accompany Spartacus’s uprising. Surrender to the spinning violin solos and rich orchestral palette of Scheherazade’s nightly tales – a spirited heroine in an exotic world. And discover the charming panoramas of Saint-Saëns’ most evocative concerto, with its thudding steamship propellers and croaking frogs on the Nile.

KHACHATURIAN Spartacus: Suite
SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto No.5 (Egyptian)
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scheherazade

Alexander Lazarev conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet piano

The Rococo Variations for cello and orchestra is the most famous of these and its refined nostalgia and delicate virtuosity strikes a chord in every heart. Mozart himself is represented by the symphony he wrote for the city that loved him best Prague. But Sydneysiders can be just as appreciative of the music’s spirit and “fiery momentum”. Add the bell-like simplicity of Pärt’s Fratres and you really can “expect something sublime”.

PÄRT Fratres for solo violin, strings and percussion
MOZART Symphony No.38 (Prague)
TCHAIKOVSKY Rococo Variations for cello and orchestra

Dene Olding violin-director
Catherine Hewgill cello*

* Timothy Walden is unable to perform at these concerts as originally scheduled.

Celebrating the swing and charm of legendary performer Cole as well as Benson’s own chart-topping hits, George will be delivering hits from Smile, Nothing’s Goin’ a Change My Love for You to When I Fall in Love and Ramblin’ Rose. With luscious orchestral scores, and a multi-Grammy award winning interpreter, this is Nat King Cole as you’ve never heard him before.

Experience a legend paying tribute to a legend. 11-13 November, 8pm. Tickets start at $49.

* Fri 12 & Sat 13 November tickets available here.

** Unfortunately Burt Bacharach who was originally scheduled to perform at the Sydney Opera House on these dates is unable to do so for medical reasons.**

Celebrating the swing and charm of legendary performer Cole as well as Benson’s own chart-topping hits, George will be delivering hits from Smile, Nothing’s Goin’ a Change My Love for You to When I Fall in Love and Ramblin’ Rose. With luscious orchestral scores, and a multi-Grammy award winning interpreter, this is Nat King Cole as you’ve never heard him before.

Experience a legend paying tribute to a legend. 11-13 November, 8pm. Tickets start at $49.

* Thu 11 November performance tickets available here. 


** Unfortunately Burt Bacharach who was originally scheduled to perform at the Sydney Opera House on these dates is unable to do so for medical reasons.**

We’re ushering in the Sydney summer with Mahler’s Third Symphony – his sunniest symphony of all. “The finale is just unbelievably uplifting,” says Ashkenazy, “and no one, not even the most pessimistic person, will be able to resist it.” But before the music arrives at that glorious conclusion, radiant in its affirmation of love, it traces a musical journey inspired by nature and the dream of a summer morning.

It’s an expansive, all-embracing symphony that finds as much meaning in a dainty meadow flower as in the voices of angels. This, said Mahler, is a symphony that wakes from unfathomable silence and sings and rings!

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Lilli Paasikivi mezzo-soprano
Ladies of the Sydney
Philharmonia Choirs
Sydney Children’s Choir

LISTEN TO SAMPLES

Use < > buttons to scroll tracks - see below for listings.

There should be every reason to think of Tchaikovsky as out of touch – he was an aloof personality, full of insecurities – and yet his music cuts to the core with the irresistible impulse of honest emotion.

You can’t help but feel his astonishing gift for melody and great dramatic instincts. In this concert we celebrate his genius with the soaring themes and infectious virtuosity of the Violin Concerto and music from his ballet masterpiece, Sleeping Beauty.

Following the 2008 Elgar festival, Vladimir Ashkenazy has invited Canadian James Ehnes, “a tremendous violinist”, to return to play another great Romantic concerto. 

SIBELIUS Finlandia
TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto
TCHAIKOVSKY Sleeping Beauty: Suite

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
James Ehnes violin

TEA & SYMPHONY - 10 DECEMBER
Short program: Violin Concerto and Sleeping Beauty Suite.

 

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – TCHAIKOVSKY Sleeping Beauty: Waltz
L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Ernest Ansermet
DECCA 480 0560
Tracks 2 and 3 TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto
Boris Belkin, violin, with the New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy
DECCA 467 604-2
Track 4 – SIBELIUS Finlandia
Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy
DECCA 466 6872

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music

Currently available for purchase: Finlandia