Whats On

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A Count goes hunting on a Sunday. A Musician (ok, it’s Berlioz) poisons himself with opium. According to the music, they both come to grief: one is chased by demons to eternity, the other is overwhelmed by dreams of witches and the scaffold. It seems wrong to enjoy their fates so much, but who can resist it when these wild stories have been given such exhilarating and evocative music?

Ravel’s piano concerto is just as thrilling – it begins with the crack of a whip and ends in a jazz-inflected whirlwind of notes. Fantastique!

FRANCK The Accursed Huntsman
RAVEL Piano Concerto in G
BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique

Pinchas Steinberg conductor
Louis Lortie piano

Pre-concert talk by Yvonne Frindle at 7.15pm in the Northern Foyer.

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – FRANCK The Accursed Huntsman
L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Ernest Ansermet
DECCA 480 0052
Track 2 – RAVEL Piano Concerto in G: 3rd movement (Presto)
Alicia de Larrocha, piano, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conduced by Lawrence Foster
DECCA 476 235-1
Track 3 – BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique: At the Ball
Track 4 – BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique: March to the Scaffold
Hungarian Radio and Television Orchestra conducted by Charles Munch
PHILIPS 476 7962

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

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Beethoven was the first musical hero and as far as some of us are concerned he’s the greatest of them all. His Emperor Concerto takes the heroic spirit of the Napoleonic age and turns it into music that’s muscular and commanding, wrapping the noblest of emotions in breathtaking virtuosity. It’s weighty music for a powerful pianist like François-Frédéric Guy.

Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung brought together a whole raft of heroes in a massive cycle of four operas that begins in the Rhine and ends with the halls of Valhalla aflame. At 20 hours it’s too much for one concert, but Alexander Briger has chosen the orchestral highlights, beginning with the Ride of the Valkyries, for a Wagnerian musical adventure – minus the singing!

THE HALL OF HEROES
LEDGER Arcs and Planes
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.5 (Emperor)
WAGNER The Ring of the Nibelung: An Orchestral Suite

Alexander Briger conductor
François-Frédéric Guy piano

TEA & SYMPHONY - 19 MARCH
Short program: Beethoven, Wagner

You can also read our interview with François-Frédéric Guy.

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.5 (Emperor): 1. Allegro
Track 2 – BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.5 (Emperor): 2. Adagio un poco mosso
Track 3 – BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.5 (Emperor): 3. Rondo (Allegro)
Radu Lupu, piano, with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta
DECCA 66 6892

Visit again closer to the concert for more highlights from this program.

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

Currently available from iTunes

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If ever there was a composer worth unpacking it would be Gustav Mahler, notorious for his enormous orchestras and large-scale structures.

So have Richard Gill and the Sydney Sinfonia bitten off more than they can chew? Come along and discover Mahler’s  more intimate side with two songs: ‘When my sweetheart is married’ and ‘The two blue eyes of my beloved’. A movement from a Brahms symphony gives the context for Mahler’s ambitious musical ideas.

Discover Mahler, and join us in 2010 for the first year of our Mahler Odyssey with Vladimir Ashkenazy: Mahler 1 and Mahler 8 (February), Mahler 5 and Mahler’sSong of the Earth(May), Mahler 4 (November) and Mahler 3 (December).

MAHLER Songs of a Wayfarer:
‘Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht’
‘Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz’
BRAHMS Symphony No.3: 3rd movement

Richard Gill conductor
Samuel Dundas baritone

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – MAHLER Songs of a Wayfarer: Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht (When my beloved is married)
Track 2 – MAHLER Songs of a Wayfarer: Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz (The two blue eyes of my beloved)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone, with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rafael Kubelik
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 449 735-2
Track 3 – BRAHMS Symphony No.3: Poco allegretto
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by Kurt Masur
PHILIPS 476 2815

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

Currently available from iTunes: Mahler

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When Roy Goodman arrives in Sydney he’ll bring a 30-year reputation as a violinist and director specialising in baroque music, and that reputation has shaped the program he’s put together for us. Two magnificent baroque suites provide the frame and a baroque-inspired concerto from English composer Michael Tippett brings it up to date.

You’re allowed to ask where Edouard Lalo’s Cello Concerto fits into the scheme of things and we could jump through hoops explaining it: a French Romantic bridge between Bach’s French-style suite and a 20th-century concerto perhaps?

The truth is, this is heart-warming and lyrical music, and if you heard the rich intensity of Jian Wang’s Elgar concerto in 2008, this will be another chance to hear him play to his strengths. But in the end, Handel upstages everybody with his spectacular Music for the Royal Fireworks.

PYROTECHNICA
BACH Orchestral Suite No.4 in D
LALO Cello Concerto
TIPPETT Concerto for double string orchestra
HANDEL Music for the Royal Fireworks

Roy Goodman conductor
Jian Wang cello

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – JS BACH Orchestral Suite No.4: Réjouissance
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra conducted by Karl Münchinger
DECCA 458 169-2
Track 2 – LALO Cello Concerto: Intermezzo
Matt Haimovitz, cello, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Levine
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 427 323-2
Track 3 – HANDEL Music for the Royal Fireworks: La Réjouissance
Berlin Philharmonic / Rafael Kubelik
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 477 6681

Visit again in 2010 for more highlights from this concert.

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

Currently available from iTunes:
Lalo
Handel

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Dance the farruca, malambo, fandango! Hear all the colours of Spain when Miguel Harth-Bedoya, the Peruvian-born conductor, returns to Sydney with this exhilarating program.

Joaquín Turina leads the dancing with music that rises “like incense” and seizes the listener with its elegant fervour. From Argentina, young composer Esteban Benzecry reveals the colours of the Southern Cross in a five-movement suite ending in a red-blooded malambo. Manuel de Falla brings the music that made him world-famous: The Three-Cornered Hat – a high-spirited ballet that radiates sensuousness and virility.

Rodrigo doesn’t dance. But his much-loved guitar concerto blends the ardent flamenco soul with a rococo elegance inspired by the palace of Aranjuez. This is the music that sealed Rodrigo’s fate as the composer of “that concerto”, and Slava Grigoryan makes his Sydney Symphony concert hall debut as its soloist.

TURINA Danzas fantásticas
RODRIGO Concierto de Aranjuez
BENZECRY Colours of the Southern Cross
FALLA The Three-Cornered Hat: Suites

Miguel Harth-Bedoya conductor
Slava Grigoryan guitar

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Track 1 – TURINA Danzas fantásticas: Orgia
West Australian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jorge Mester
ABC 438 198-2
Track 2 – RODRIGO Concierto de Aranjuez: 2nd movement (Adagio)
Slava Grigoryan, guitar, with the Queensland Orchestra conducted by Brett Kelly
ABC 476 8072
Track 3 – FALLA The Three-Cornered Hat: The Miller’s Dance
Track 4 – FALLA The Three-Cornered Hat: Final Dance (Jota)
West Australian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jorge Mester
ABC 438 198-2

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music

Currently available from iTunes: Rodrigo

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Richard Gill isn’t going to gossip about why Schubert never finished his Eighth Symphony (no one quite knows, although scholars love to speculate). He’s more likely to show you how Schubert’s expansive melodies and long-range harmonies work together to create one of the most gloriously lyrical symphonic movements ever written. And we introduce a new work written specially for this series by young composer Phil Jameson.

Discover Schubert then hear the “complete” Unfinished Symphony in Dance of the Imagination in June.

SCHUBERT Symphony No.8 (Unfinished): 1st movement
JAMESON The Wind in the Hemlock (PREMIERE)

Richard Gill conductor  
Celeste Haworth mezzo-soprano

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SCHUBERT Symphony No.8 (Unfinished): 1st movement (Allegro moderato)
Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Georg Solti
DECCA 448 927-2

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music

Currently available from iTunes

**Please note that Rodgers & Hammerstein on Stage and Screen will begin at 8pm not 7pm as previously advertised**

Conducted by George Daugherty
Produced by George Daugherty and David Ka Lik Wong

The incomparable melodies, lyrics, and movie magic of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II come to life on the big screen, in your favourite songs and scenes from The Sound of Music, Carousel, Oklahoma!, South Pacific, The King and I, and State Fair. All accompanied live by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

From the conductor and concert producers who created Bugs Bunny On Broadway™ and Bugs Bunny At The Symphony™ comes an all new “orchestra and film” spectacular – Rodgers & Hammerstein On Stage And Screen!

“A Thoroughly Inventive, Engaging Mix of Multi-Media and Live Music!”
“When watching a Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, it's almost impossible not to respond with that age-old cliché: ‘They sure don't make them like they used to.’  But one of the most impressive features of this concert was how effortlessly the multimedia was integrated. The video never felt like a distraction but rather worked to enhance the music. The live music, in turn, amplified the image. This perfect synchronicity breathtakingly infused new life into these classic movie musicals.” The Daily Californian

Featuring film clips from the new digitally-remastered Rodgers & Hammerstein DVD Collection from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Rodgers & Hammerstein is a trademark used under license from The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization on behalf of the Family Trust u/w Richard Rodgers and the Estate of Oscar Hammerstein II.

© 2010 Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC. All Rights Reserved.
“Twentieth Century Fox,” “Fox,” and their associated logos are the property of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.

Bugs Bunny at the Symphony was created by and will be conducted by George Daugherty

What’s Opera, Doc? The Rabbit of Seville, Baton Bunny, Tweet and Lovely and more, as you’ve never seen and heard them before. Plus Tom and Jerry in the Hollywood Bowl and special guests The Flintstones, The Jetsons and Scooby-Doo!


New Mother's Day shows announced
Sun 9 May 1pm & 5pm - Tickets go on sale Sat 13 March, 9am.

Free gift to your family!
Free gift and lucky door prize entry for every Mum! And Looney Tunes characters will be available for your family photo!

Gift, lucky door prize and costumed characters available Sunday May 9 performances only.

** Tickets for our 9 May 5pm performance can be purchased from the Sydney Opera House website.**

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In space, if you listen, you can hear the stars sing. Georges Lentz, with his profound musical vision and love of the night sky, brings that sound into the concert hall – pure and serene.
We premiered Guyuhmgan in 2001, and for its return Lentz has added solos for two of our woodwind principals. The music’s soft tones find affinity in the delicate austerity of Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments, and Beethoven’s heroic tone-poem in miniature balances Sibelius’s most memorable symphony.

Sibelius also claimed heavenly inspiration. Writing his Fifth Symphony, he said it was if God had thrown down mosaic pieces from heaven and asked him to put them back as they were – for Sibelius composing was like a celestial jigsaw puzzle, an aching mystery that even he didn’t fully understand. We may not understand the process either, but we recognise the result – invigorating and life-affirming.

BEETHOVEN Leonore Overture No.3
LENTZ Guyuhmgan
STRAVINSKY Symphonies of Wind Instruments
SIBELIUS Symphony No.5

Matthew Coorey conductor
Diana Doherty oboe
Alexandre Oguey cor anglais

TEA & SYMPHONY - 14 MAY
Short program: Beethoven, Lentz and Sibelius.

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – BEETHOVEN Leonore Overture No.3
Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Herbert von Karajan
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 445 112-2
Track 2 – LENTZ Guyumhgan
Sydney Symphony conducted by Edo de Waart
ABC CLASSICS 472 397-2
Track 3 – STRAVINSKY Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920 version)
Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Pierre Boulez
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 457 616-2
Track 4 – SIBELIUS Symphony No.5: 3rd movement (Allegro molto)
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Anthony Collins
DECCA 442 9493

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

Currently available from iTunes: Beethoven

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Ashkenazy says it’s not just interesting but right to play the music of Richard Strauss alongside Mahler. They could have been rivals, but were friends, even though musically, as Mahler put it, they were like miners, tunnelling from opposite sides and “meeting on their subterranean ways”.

From one side this concert unearths the overture from Strauss’s first opera and strikes a seam of witty allusion in the virtuoso Burleske for piano and orchestra. From the other side comes Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, making its way from the sombre tread of a funeral march to the ecstasy of its finale. But our hearts are won by the musical declaration of love embraced by these two extremes: the Symphony’s Adagietto, in which strings and harp give voice to a wordless passion.

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Clemens Leske piano

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – R STRAUSS Burleske for piano and orchestra: excerpt
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano, with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by Herbert Blomstedt
DECCA 480 0404
Track 2 – MAHLER Symphony No.5: 1st movement (Funeral March)
Track 3 – MAHLER Symphony No.5: 3rd movement (Scherzo)
Track 4 – MAHLER Symphony No.5: 4th movement (Adagietto)
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rafael Kubelik.
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 463 738-2

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

Currently available from iTunes:
Strauss Burleske
Mahler

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Who’s the Mozart you know? Is he the child prodigy, writing perfectly formed symphonies at the age of 10? Is he the lyrical Mozart, the composer you can hum? Or is he the subversive Mozart of popular fiction (and history!) – the prankster thumbing his nose at stuffy conventions?

This concert reveals all three, through Mozart’s own music and the music of two admirers. There’s a circus mood in the diverting brilliance of Shostakovich’s piano-and-trumpet team. His outrageous parodies run the gamut from Mozart to Rachmaninoff, and no cliché is safe in this exhilarating music. Not even Tchaikovsky’s trademark lushness escapes!

Tchaikovsky’s musical defence is his “best thing”, the elegant and sumptuous Serenade for strings. Before its premiere he said, “I am violently in love with this work and can’t wait for it to be played.” Our sentiments exactly.

MOZART Symphony in G (Old Lambach)
TCHAIKOVSKY Serenade for strings
SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Concerto No.1

Dene Olding violin-director
Simon Tedeschi piano
Paul Goodchild trumpet

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Track 1 – SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Concerto No.1: 2nd movement (Lento)
Track 2 – SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Concerto No.1: 4th movement (Allegro con brio)
John Ogdon, piano, and John Wilbraham, trumpet, with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields conducted by Neville Marriner
DECCA 466 664-21

Visit again in 2010 for more highlights from this concert.

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

We can’t bring you the sardine-packed Tube, the greasy spoon, or the warm beer but we can bring you the Last Night of the Proms. This Queens Birthday weekend, 11 and 12 June, wave your flags, think of England, and have great night out at the Sydney Opera House with this most patriotic of traditions. Expect the best of British popular music including Jerusalem, Rule Brittania and Enigma Variations.

You won’t have to fight your position on the floor – we’ll give you a seat! And the Sydney Opera House will come alive with streamers and celebrations, all played for you by the Sydney Symphony under the baton of “Lord” Guy Noble.

Tickets go on sale to the general public on 20 March.

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Here’s what you need to know…

Haydn: a witty composer with a deft touch for workplace politics; his Farewell Symphony cleverly ends up with just two musicians on the stage and won his orchestra the change of scene they were hankering after.

Bruch: a dreamer who heard the soul of music in melody; from its opening flourishes to its bravura gypsy finale, his much-loved First Violin Concerto sums up everything that is rich and enchanting about the Romantic style.

Schoenberg: rewrote the rulebook but believed only in inspiration; his symphony is “little but vast”, concentrated, forward-looking and daring.

Beethoven: ditto.

The greatest composers are always on the brink of something new and fresh. Hear it for yourself in a boldly imagined program that doesn’t stand still.

HAYDN Symphony No.45 (Farewell)
BRUCH Violin Concerto No.1
SCHOENBERG Chamber Symphony No.1
BEETHOVEN Symphony No.8

Oleg Caetani conductor
Daniel Hope violin

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – BRUCH Violin Concerto No.1: 1st movement (Introduction)
Arthur Grumiaux, violin, and the New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Heinz Wallberg
PHILIPS 476 8485
Track 2 – SCHOENBERG Chamber Symphony No.1, Op.9: excerpt
Members of the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Chailly
DECCA 473 728-2
Track 3 – BEETHOVEN Symphony No.8: 1st movement (Allegro vivace e con brio)
Track 4 – BEETHOVEN Symphony No.8: 4th movement (Allegro vivace)
Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Herbert von Karajan
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 429 0402

Visit again in 2010 for more highlights from this concert.

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

Currently available from iTunes:
Bruch
Schoenberg
Beethoven

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Midori found fame as a prodigy, playing Paganini at seven and making her New York Philharmonic debut at 11. But even as a mature artist she hasn’t lost her enthusiasm or her intensity.
There’s still a spirit of youth that fills her playing, and this concert too.

Mozart and Schubert are represented by virtuoso violin music they wrote in their teens, which makes for a program that darts between the spectacular and the exotic, the vivacious and the captivating. By the time he wrote his great G minor symphony (No.40) Mozart was a grown-up, but he too never lost his intensity of expression. And even Stravinsky, composing in his
60s, keeps a neoclassical twinkle in his eye.

It’s a celebration of the violin in Classical mode for the young and the young-at-heart.

STRAVINSKY Concerto in D for strings (Basel)
MOZART Violin Concerto No.5 (Turkish)
MOZART Symphony No.40
SCHUBERT Rondo in A for violin and strings

Antonello Manacorda conductor
Midori violin

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Track 1 – MOZART Symphony No.40: 1st movement
The English Concert directed by Trevor Pinnock
ARCHIV 471 677-2
Track 2 – MOZART Violin Concerto No.5: ‘Turkish’ rondo (3rd movement)
Iona Brown, violin and director, with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields
DECCA 476 2748
Track 3 – SCHUBERT Rondo in A for violin and strings
Arthur Grumiaux, violin, with the New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Raymond Leppard
PHILIPS 442 8290

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music

Currently available from iTunes: Mozart Symphony No.40

This year James Morrison is bringing us a potted history of the best of instruments (that would be the trumpet).

He begins in the glory days of the high baroque, when the trumpet kept company with kings and angels, and takes the exhilarating journey through the jazz age and into modern times. With a fanfare of guest trumpeters and the full force of the Sydney Symphony, this is one concert where it’s fair to say: Have a blast!

In association with 35th Annual Conference of the International Trumpet Guild 2010.

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Stravinsky thought his Symphony in C was “unmysterious and so easy to hear on every level” – this is his nod to Haydn and Beethoven. But the ballet Pulcinella is where neoclassicism began: recomposing music by Pergolesi and others to show the 18th century as viewed through modern eyes.

Following the success of his Morgentanz in 2008, Andrew Howes returns to the Discovery Program with music for the voice.

Discover Stravinsky then join us for his infamous Rite of Spring in October. And there’s more Stravinsky earlier in the year when we play Dumbarton Oaks (April), Symphonies of Wind Instruments (May) and the Concerto in D for strings (July).

STRAVINSKY Symphony in C: 1st movement
STRAVINSKY Pulcinella: Minuetto – Finale
HOWES Everybody Sang PREMIERE

Richard Gill conductor
Celeste Haworth mezzo-soprano

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – STRAVINSKY Pulcinella (1947 version): Finale
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 419 628-2

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music

 

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Mozart is a familiar name, but let us introduce you to Anton Arensky. He’s a Russian Romantic, remembered for only a handful of pieces, but every one is a gem. The most famous of all is the Variations, which documents a friendship by taking its theme from Tchaikovsky’s poignant Easter hymn, The Legend. Mozart’s own legendary status is confirmed by the festive Haffner Symphony and the genial classicism of one of his best-loved piano concertos.

ARENSKY Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky
MOZART Symphony No.35 (Haffner)
MOZART Piano Concerto No.23 in A, K488

Michael Dauth violin-director
Orli Shaham piano

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – MOZART Symphony No.35 (Haffner): 1st movement
Track 2 – MOZART Piano Concerto No.23 in A, K488: slow movement
Track 3 – MOZART Piano Concerto No.23 in A, K488: finale
Alfred Brendel, piano, with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields conducted by Neville Marriner
PHILIPS 464 719-2
Track 4 – MOZART Symphony No.35 (Haffner): finale
Vienna Philharmonic conducted by István Kertész
DECCA 476 7401

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music

Currently available from iTunes: Mozart concerto

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If you heard Garrick Ohlsson play Rachmaninoff with the Sydney Symphony in 2007 you’ll know his commanding sound. This is your chance to hear him in a program that begins with the elegant flamboyance of an impromptu and ends with Chopin’s greatest sonata – beautiful and breathtaking.
 
Make another date with Chopin when Garrick Ohlsson plays his Second Piano Concerto in the EnergyAustralia Master Series (21, 23, 24 July) and the Mondays @ 7 Series (26 July).

CHOPIN
Impromptu No.2 in F sharp, Op.36
Ballade No.3 in A flat, Op.47
Fantasy, Op.49
Mazurka No.6 in A minor, Op.7 No.2
Mazurka No.7 in F minor, Op.7 No.3
Mazurka No.21 in C sharp minor, Op.30 No.4
Scherzo No.3 in C sharp minor, Op.39
Barcarolle in F sharp, Op.60
Mazurka No.32 in C sharp minor, Op.50 No.3
Sonata No.3 in B minor, Op.58

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – CHOPIN Impromptu No.2
Claudio Arrau, piano
Track 2 – CHOPIN Ballade No.3
Vladimir Ashkenazy, piano
DECCA 475 8046

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music

Currently available from iTunes: ‘Ultimate Chopin’

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At the end of the Doctor Atomic Symphony, John Adams gives us powerful but sombre music. In the original opera it accompanies a John Donne sonnet: “Batter my heart, three-person’d God”. It’s music for a scientist in awe and fear of what he’s done, a man struggling with conscience.

Respite comes in the form of Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto, the music that Liszt said was “of a perfection almost ideal… now radiant with light, now full of tender pathos.”

The second half of the concert begins with the most famous four notes in the world, the notes that Beethoven is supposed to have said were like Fate knocking at the door. The emotion, the awe and the struggle couldn’t be more intense, and no matter how well you know the Fifth Symphony, this will be your chance to hear it anew.

ADAMS Doctor Atomic Symphony AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
CHOPIN Piano Concerto No.2
BEETHOVEN Symphony No.5

David Robertson conductor
Garrick Ohlsson piano

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Tracks 1 and 2 – CHOPIN Piano Concerto No.2
Jorge Bolet, piano, with Montreal Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit
DECCA 475 8046
Tracks 3 and 4 – BEETHOVEN Symphony No.5
Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Herbert von Karajan
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 429 0392

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music

Currently available from iTunes:
‘Ultimate Chopin’
Beethoven

Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto begins with magical, shimmering sounds that seem to have flown straight out of Stravinsky’s Firebird ballet. It’s music born in the crucible of Romanticism, Impressionism and something more: a truly unique voice. Szymanowski sends his soloist soaring to ecstatic heights and in Arabella Steinbacher we have the ideal violinist to project the rarefied beauty of this luxuriant and lively concerto.

The euphoria continues with Bruckner’s finest and most beautiful symphony. If you’re a Bruckner fan there’s really no more to say – you’ll want to hear Simone Young conduct this music. If you’re still to be won over, brace yourself for an intoxicating experience. Bruckner transcends Beethoven to build a noble architecture on the grandest scale – flamboyant and contemplative, earthy and spiritual. Sublime.

WAGNER Lohengrin: Prelude to Act III
SZYMANOWSKI Violin Concerto No.1
BRUCKNER Symphony No.7

Simone Young conductor
Arabella Steinbacher violin

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In Dvorák’s noisily exuberant Carnival Overture, night-time revellers vent their feelings in songs and dances. Ross Edwards’ dancing-chanting violin concerto veers between deep introspection and ecstatic rhythms, and it has an irrepressible impulse to dance that’s made it a winner with audiences all over the world.

But for philosophy, euphoria and a dizzying vision of music, no one can beat Scriabin, the Russian mystic. His Divine Poem is no mere symphony – it’s a revelation of the pleasures of the physical senses and the joys of “untrammelled existence”.

DVORÁK Carnival Overture
EDWARDS Maninyas – Violin Concerto
SCRIABIN The Divine Poem (Symphony No.3)

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Dene Olding violin

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – DVORÁK Carnival Overture
Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta
DECCA 476 9907
Track 2 – EDWARDS Maninyas – Violin Concerto
Dene Olding, violin, with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Stuart Challender
ABC CLASSICS 438 6102
Tracks 3 and 4 – SCRIABIN Divine Poem (Symphony No.3)
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy
DECCA 460 2992

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Currently available from iTunes: Scriabin

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Lovers young and old are caught up in the glamorous turmoil of Der Rosenkavalier – even without the singing, Strauss’s music gives voice to the waltzing nostalgia of times past and love surrendered.

Love is the theme for Sibelius, too, as he finds inspiration in the ancient sagas and ballads of his Finnish roots. One of these, Rakastava, began life as a choral piece before Sibelius reworked its tender, yearning narrative for string orchestra.

Elgar’s Enigma Variations has an equally melancholy and nostalgic starting point. Its theme is notorious for its unsolvable “enigma” – proving Elgar was a tease, if nothing else – but the variations are distinctive above all for the loving affection that the composer brings to his musical portraits of his beloved friends.

R STRAUSS Der Rosenkavalier: Suite
SIBELIUS Rakastava (The Lover)
ELGAR Enigma Variations

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor

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Track 1 – R STRAUSS Der Rosenkavalier: Suite
Vienna Philharmonic conducted by André Previn
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 437 7902
Track 2 – SIBELIUS Rakastava Suite
Academy of St Martin in the Fields conducted by Neville Marriner
DECCA 466 9052
Tracks 3 and 4 – ELGAR Enigma Variations
Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta
DECCA 450 0212

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music

Currently available from iTunes:
Strauss
Elgar

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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 from iTunes:
Mendelssohn Songs without Words
Chopin Nocturnes
Liszt

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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

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Tracks 1 and 2 – GERSHWIN An American in Paris
Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Levine
Tracks 3 and 4 – GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue
Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted from the piano by Leonard Bernstein
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 477 6677

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music

Currently available from iTunes: Gershwin

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

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

**BURT BACHARACH SYDNEY PERFORMANCES TO BE RESCHEDULED**

We have unfortunately been notified by Burt Bacharach’s management that for medical reasons Mr Bacharach needs to reschedule his concerts in Australia from March to November of this year.  We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

We encourage you to hold on to your tickets, which will remain valid for the specific new performance dates listed below. Simply present your current tickets at the Sydney Opera House on the night of the corresponding new concert date.

If you are unable to attend the rescheduled concerts in November, your options are below.

SUBSCRIPTION TICKET HOLDERS

You can use our ticket exchange service to arrange tickets to another concert.  Please call our box office on 8215 4600 (open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm). We ask that you arrange your ticket exchange before Friday 5 February 2010.

Please note, the first concert in your Kaleidoscope series is now in early July when we welcome celebrated Australian musician James Morrison to the stage for a magical night of superlative trumpet playing. 

SINGLE TICKET HOLDERS

Please return your tickets to:

Reply Paid
GPO Box 4338
Sydney NSW 2001

Or call our box office on 8215 4600 (open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm). 

All refunds must be requested by Friday 5 February 2010.

ABOUT THE CONCERT

You could say that Burt Bacharach belongs with an orchestra. 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

Listen or purchase tracks by Burt Bacharach at BigPond Music.

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