What's On

Mozart was a young spark, just 22 years old, when he began writing a concerto for piano and violin. He didn’t finish it, but he did finish a sonata for violin and piano and there’s every sign that these two pieces came from the same creative inspiration. Philip Wilby has done the detective work to turn the concerto fragment into a lively and satisfying whole using music from the sonata.

Benjamin Britten was another young spark, and he’s pushing the envelope with his official first composition, the taut and sophisticated Sinfonietta.

Then there’s some more clever recycling with a three-movement symphony that the enterprising Mozart put together from his ambitious Posthorn Serenade. This is music that’s too grand and powerful to be simple background music, and Mozart brings it into the concert hall as a symphony that’s both brilliant and entertaining.

MOZART Concerto in D for piano and violin, K315f (reconstructed by Philip Wilby)
BRITTEN Sinfonietta
MOZART Symphony in D (from the Posthorn Serenade)

Dene Olding violin-director
Andrea Lam piano


AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – BRITTEN Sinfonietta: Tarantella
Wiener Oktett with Werner Tripp (flute) and Karl Mayrhofer (oboe)
DECCA ELOQUENCE 480 2406

Track 2 – MOZART Symphony from the Posthorn Serenade: Andantino
Track 3 – MOZART Symphony from the Posthorn Serenade: Finale (Presto)
L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, conducted by Peter Maag
DECCA ELOQUENCE 476 9701

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.
Available for purchase: Posthorn Serenade

On 4 and 5 February, country music legend Kenny Rogers will make his debut appearance with the Sydney Symphony at the Sydney Opera House.

With chart-topping  favourites from throughout his career, you'll be able to witness first-hand the voice and the icon that has drawn legions of fans from rock, pop, soul and country audiences for more than five decades.

Don’t miss this rare chance to see Kenny Rogers perform Lucille, The Gambler, Buy Me a Rose, You Needed Me, Islands in the Stream, Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer and Crazy.

Two performances only. 4 & 5 February 2011, 8pm at the Sydney Opera House. Tickets from $35.

Did Tchaikovsky really call Brahms a “giftless bastard”? Yes, and worse. But the two men got on well enough when they eventually met, and they agreed on one thing: neither really liked the finale of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony! Tchaikovsky was bothered that its brilliant optimism would sound false, but audiences knew better – and we still do.

Brahms and Tchaikovsky come together in this program with masterpieces that are absolutely unchallenged in the affections of music-lovers. Brahms’s Violin Concerto reveals all the elegance of his mature style – noble, rhapsodic, and dazzling too. This is the vehicle for the gifted young Taiwanese-Australian violinist Ray Chen, making his Sydney Symphony debut.

Tchaikovsky’s genius lies in his sincerity of emotion and dramatic instincts – nowhere more so than in his Fifth Symphony, where Fate is the theme and all the joys and sorrows, struggles and passions of the soul are set out on this great musical canvas.

BERLIOZ Béatrice et Bénédict: Overture
BRAHMS Violin Concerto
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.5

Peter Oundjian conductor
Ray Chen violin

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – BERLIOZ Béatrice et Bénedict: Overture
Montreal Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Charles Dutoit
DECCA 478 1749

Track 2 – BRAHMS Violin Concerto: Finale
Christian Ferras, violin, with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
DECCA ELOQUENCE 457 298-2

Track 3 – TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.5: Valse
Track 4 – TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.5: 1st movement
Russian National Orchestra, conducted by Mikhail Pletnev
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 477 8699

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.
Available for purchase: Berlioz, Brahms and Tchaikovsky

The Kaleidoscope series begins in style by bringing together some of the great musical moments from the silver screen in a program starring jazzman extraordinaire, James Morrison.

The trumpet takes the spotlight in a 'Satchmo' bracket, there’s music to make you smile in Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, and the smooth themes from the movies that made James Bond a household name.

John Williams brought the sound of the orchestra to the world of the science fiction movie with his spectacular orchestral score for Star Wars. And classical music itself starred in 2001: A Space Odyssey, when Stanley Kubrick lifted the stunning opening moment of Richard Strauss’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

Hear it all when James Morrison and friends The Idea of North and Emma Pask take the Sydney Symphony to the movies. 

Marc Taddei conductor
James Morrison jazz trumpet
Emma Pask vocals
The Idea of North
James Muller guitar
Phil Stack bass
Gordon Rytmeister drums

R STRAUSS Thus Spake Zarathustra (as heard in 2001: A Space Odyssey)
JOPLIN The Entertainer (from The Sting)
VARIOUS Themes from 007
BARRY Thunderball
CHAPLIN Smile (from Modern Times)
HARBURG & ARLEN Over the Rainbow
HERRMANN Taxi Driver – A Night Piece
WILLIAMS Star Wars: Main Title Music
---
WILLSON Seventy-Six Trombones (from The Music Man)
MANDEL The Shadow of Your Smile (Love Theme from The Sandpiper)
Songs by Irving BERLIN
Easter Parade, Blue Skies
A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody, Alexander’s Ragtime Band
SONDHEIM Send in the Clowns
MONK 'Round Midnight
Satchmo at the Movies – A Salute to Louis Armstrong
(including When the Saints Go Marching In and Hello, Dolly!)

Mahler’s Sixth Symphony begins with a sinister march – its pounding steps set the stage for a tragic and intensely moving creation. This is music by a composer obsessed with fate, and it spills over with passion and fierce emotions – every feeling coming directly from the heart.

In his finale, Mahler wrote three great hammerblows to symbolise the blows of destiny – then deleted one in morbid fear that the symphony would turn out to be prophetic. If you’re getting to know Mahler, this symphony is an impassioned portrait of the man and his musical vision.

According to his son Daniel, Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto was a portrait too – the music veers between extremes, sometimes suggesting the young Liszt as an ardent lover, sometimes the religious contemplation of the composer as an old man. More than a virtuoso showpiece, this is a concerto that’s full of poetry and brilliant contrasts.

LISZT Piano Concerto No.2
MAHLER Symphony No.6

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet piano

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

Hear Jean-Efflam Bavouzet in recital on 7 March.

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – MAHLER Symphony No.6: Allegro energico
Track 2 – MAHLER Symphony No.6: Andante moderato
Track 3 – MAHLER Symphony No.6: Finale (Allegro moderato)
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rafael Kubelik (1969)
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 463 738-2

Track 4 – Track 4 – LISZT Piano Concerto No.2: Finale
Claudio Abbado (piano) with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Colin Davis
DECCA ELOQUENCE 478 0236

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music. Mahler available for purchase here.



Video of MAHLER Symphony No.4 performed by the Sydney Symphony at the Sydney Opera House in 2010.

This recital begins with one of Beethoven’s most popular sonatas and ends with a monumental concert piece by Liszt – its difficulty and emotional range suggested by the fact that the composer later arranged it for two pianos as “Concerto Pathetique”.

At the heart of this program is an evocation of the moon. Debussy sets the scene with his famous Clair de lune before introducing ruined temples, mysterious watchers gathered in contemplation of the beauty of the night, and – in his ballet Jeux – a nocturnal game of tennis. And Wagner’s transcendent music from Tristan und Isolde tenderly summons the oblivion that can be found only in the “realm of night”.

“Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s flexible virtuosity and innate grasp of Debussy’s style and sound world yields ravishing, freshly minted interpretations…”
Gramophone

BEETHOVEN Pathétique Sonata, Op.13
DEBUSSY
Clair de lune (from Suite bergamasque)
Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fût (from Images, Series 2)
La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune (from Préludes, Book 2)
WAGNER arr. Liszt Isolde’s Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde
DEBUSSY arr. Bavouzet Jeux
LISZT Grand solo de concert, S176

Pre-concert talk by Robert Murray at 6.15pm in the First Floor Reception Room

Hear Jean-Efflam Bavouzet play Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto on 3, 4, 5 March.

Mahler’s Seventh Symphony glides through nocturnal worlds, giving musical glimpses of a feverish Romantic imagination, and the composer’s genius lights the way. This is Mahler’s most intriguing symphony, its classical symmetry embracing unrestrained fantasy and glowing orchestral colours.

Embark on this particular musical journey and you’ll pass through the realms of fairytales, of ghosts, of serenading guitars and pure musical magic, before emerging to hear Mahler in a rare sunny mood.

Mahler’s “Night Music” is introduced by the heart’s jewel of violin concertos, so loved by musicians and concert-goers that it almost needs no introduction. It sings, it dances, it fires the imagination and gladdens the heart – just the music for a perfect evening in the concert hall.

MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto in E minor
MAHLER Symphony No.7

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Sayaka Shoji violin

Pre-concert talk by Peter Czornyj at 7.15pm in the Northern Foyer.


PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto in E minor: 1st movement Ruggiero Ricci (violin) with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jean Fournet
DECCA ELOQUENCE 480 2080

Track 2 – MAHLER Symphony No.7: Scherzo Schattenhaft
Track 3 – MAHLER Symphony No.7: Nachtmusik II (Andante amoroso)
Track 4 – MAHLER Symphony No.7: Rondo Finale
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rafael Kubelik (1969) DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 463 738-2

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music. Mahler available for purchase here.



Video of MAHLER Symphony No.4 performed by the Sydney Symphony at the Sydney Opera House in 2010.

For some people Liszt was the ultimate virtuoso pianist: long-haired, handsome and armed with a diabolical technique – enough to make ladies swoon. But for Richard Gill, Liszt was one of the most forward-looking composing voices of the mid-19th century as well as the inventor of the symphonic poem, where conventional forms give way to the power of emotions and narrative.

In this concert you can discover Liszt’s visionary harmonic language through the “misfortune and glory” of his hero Prometheus.

Kurt Weill (of “Mack the Knife” fame) might seem like an unexpected companion, but there’s method in the madness. “They are both great harmonic innovators,” explains Gill, “and absolutely unique voices. Nobody else wrote they way they did.”

LISZT Prometheus – Symphonic Poem
WEILL Symphony No.2: 1st movement

Richard Gill conductor


Discover Liszt in his 200th anniversary year and join us for: Piano Concerto No.2 (3, 4, 5 March) and Tasso, Lament and Triumph (29 June, 1, 2 July), as well as solo piano music on 7 March (Jean-Efflam Bavouzet), 1 August (Freddy Kempf) and 15 September (Evgeny Kissin).

Of all the great symphonists, Mozart and Tchaikovsky inspire the most affection, and it’s easy to hear why. Mozart never failed to keep his audience’s pleasure in mind, and there’s a natural elegance in everything he wrote.

Meanwhile, Tchaikovsky speaks to us in a language of glorious melody that touches the heart. In his Second Symphony he draws on folk tunes from the Ukraine (the “Little Russia” of Tchaikovsky’s subtitle) and the music leaps for joy.

James Ledger’s new concerto for Principal Bassoon Matthew Wilkie won’t leap so much as fly. Inspired by a tiny William Blake poem, “Eternity”, the concerto will take the solitary bassoon on an ecstatic journey, high above an evolving blanket of orchestral colour.

MOZART Symphony No.34
LEDGER Outposts – Bassoon Concerto WORLD PREMIERE
STRAVINSKY Ode
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.2 (Little Russian)

Hans Graf conductor
Matthew Wilkie bassoon

Pre-concert talk by Kim Waldock in conversation with James Ledger at 5.45pm in the Northern Foyer.

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – MOZART Symphony No.34:  1. Allegro vivace
Track 2 – MOZART Symphony No.34:  3. Finale
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Peter Maag
DECCA ELOQUENCE 476 969-2

Track 4 – TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.2: 2nd movement
Track 4 – TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.2: 4th movement
Russian National Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Pletnev
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 449 967-2

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

This show includes brand new songs as well as those much loved Minchin classics, but this time, as you’ve never heard them before - with a 55 piece orchestra, the Sydney Symphony!

Since he was last in Australia in 2009, Tim has performed to  sell-out crowds around the world with his award winning show ’Ready for this?’, as well as written music and lyrics for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s new musical version of Roald Dahl’s  Matilda.

These shows are not to be missed. Tickets start at just $49.

Please note this show has adult themes and is recomended for people aged 16+.

Standing-Room still available for all dates. Please call the Sydney Symphony box office on (02) 8215 4600 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm).

"Guaranteed to bring the house down." The Metro, UK

"One of our all time favourite comics. This remarkable Aussie is a musical genius and quite unlike anyone else out there. Just go and see him" Time Out, UK

"Not only is Tim Minchin outrageously funny, he is also a beautiful singer and pianist. His piano solos are enough on  their own to warrant the entry price". The Daily Telegraph 
 
“I rated Tim Minchin’s sold out show "Ready for this?" five stars after the first 10 minutes... Tim Minchin is a true comic genius.” Adelaide Advertiser

AWARDS:
Perrier Award for Best Newcomer, Edinburgh 2005
Festival Director's Award, Sydney 2005 
Best Alternative Comedian, US Comedy Arts Festival 2007
Best Comedy Performer Helpmann Awards, 2009

 

 

Important! Due to overwhelming demand, our recent email has exhausted its supply of seats for this Friday’s performance.
Standard seats are still available for the Wed 30 Mar and Sat 2 Apr performances.

Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony sees him at his most obsessive – an entire symphony that’s driven by rhythm and pulse, music to get you on your feet. Some people hear it as a wild orgy of sound; Wagner recognised that it was thrilling enough to set everyone dancing. Even when the music slows down, it possesses an inexorable power that has always had audiences coming back for more.

John Adams takes Beethoven’s idea of hypnotic repeating patterns to the next extreme. The result is minimalism: pulsating effects and rhythmic energy in a familiar harmonic soundscape. Harmonium, for chorus and orchestra, adds three visionary poems from John Donne and Emily Dickinson to the mix, building to a “bright, vibrant clangour” and the intoxication of love.

Between these two ecstatic pieces is a moment of singing perfection for the strings of the Sydney Symphony – immeasurably sad, utterly elegant.

BEETHOVEN Symphony No.7
BARBER Adagio for Strings
ADAMS Harmonium

Edo de Waart conductor
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

These performances mark the 30th anniversary of Harmonium, which was dedicated to Edo de Waart.

Pre-concert talk by Robert Murray in the Northern Foyer at 7.15pm.

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – BEETHOVEN Symphony No.7: 1. Vivace
Track 2 – BEETHOVEN Symphony No.7: 2. Allegretto
Track 3 – BEETHOVEN Symphony No.7: 3. Presto
Track 4 – BEETHOVEN Symphony No.7: 4. Allegro con brio
Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Herbert von Karajan
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON ELOQUENCE 429 0362

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.
Beethoven available for purchase here.

Pianist Joyce Yang knows exactly why Rachmaninoff’s music is so powerful, and so popular. “There is so much nostalgia in his music – even if it’s new to your ear, it will tap into an emotion that’s very personal, it will give life to something you already know.”

Who knows what those emotions will be? Perhaps it will be the deep melancholy from the middle of the Third Piano Concerto, or maybe you’ll be swept up in the exuberance of the finale.

The Third Symphony might reach out with its feelings of bittersweet regret and the tragedy of exile – the sounds of Orthodox chant hinting at a Russia remembered. Or perhaps it will be the rhapsodic grandeur and majestic orchestral colours that move you. Whatever the feeling, Rachmaninoff is always genuine and heartfelt.

Rautavaara’s vividly sonorous music for brass and percussion begins with fanfares and ends with the gentle austerity of tears – clearing the way for the poignant introduction of Rachmaninoff’s concerto.

RAUTAVAARA A Requiem in Our Time
RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No.3
RACHMANINOFF Symphony No.3

Edo de Waart conductor
Joyce Yang piano

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

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No.3: 1st movement
Track 2 – RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No.3: 3rd movement
Alicia de Larrocha, piano; London Symphony Orchestra conducted by André Previn DECCA ELOQUENCE 461 348-2

Track 3 – RACHMANINOFF Symphony No.3: 2nd movement Track 4 – RACHMANINOFF Symphony No.3: 3rd movement Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy DECCA 455 789-2

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

When cellist Pieter Wispelwey was invited to direct a Classical program with the Sydney Symphony, there was simply no avoiding Haydn – of all the 18th-century cello concertos, Haydn’s hold the central position. “His C major cello concerto is unbelievably popular,” Wispelwey says, “and rightfully so!” Its highlight is an effervescent finale, very fast and hypnotising in its brilliance.

Leading us to this climax is the stormy drama of Haydn’s so-called “Passione” symphony and one of Mozart’s serenades for wind octet: spirited music that will show off the Sydney Symphony wind players.

MOZART Wind Serenade in E flat, K375
HAYDN Symphony No.49 (La passione)
HAYDN Cello Concerto No.1 in C

Pieter Wispelwey cello-director

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – MOZART Wind Serenade in E flat, K375: 2. Menuetto I
Track 2 – MOZART Wind Serenade in E flat, K375: 3. Adagio
Track 3 – MOZART Wind Serenade in E flat, K375: 4. Menuetto II
Track 4 – MOZART Wind Serenade in E flat, K375: 5. Allegro
Netherlands Wind Ensemble conducted by Edo de Waart
DECCA ELOQUENCE 464 637-2

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

With composer Nobuo Uematsu in attendance and conductor Arnie Roth, the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall will swell with the award-winning music from the FINAL FANTASY video game series as it’s performed by a full orchestra, with state of the art videos and stills shown on big screens highlighting the games' most memorable sequences.
 
Featuring scenes from throughout the FINAL FANTASY series as well as music from the newly released FINAL FANTASY XIII and FINAL FANTASY XIV, this is truly a concert not to be missed. Two concerts only, 15 and 16 April, 8pm. Tickets from $35.

More info about the concert at ffdistantworlds.com and facebook.com/ffdistantworlds

Each purchased ticket includes a free limited edition Distant Worlds II: music from FINAL FANTASY poster which you can have signed by our special guests.  You are welcome to take photographs with Nobuo and Arnie and bring or buy other FINAL FANTASY merchandise for signing.

Note: your Meet & Greet ticket does not include your FINAL FANTASY & The Sydney Symphony ticket. It is a separate ticketed event.

Richard Gill kills two birds with one stone when he brings together Respighi and Ravel for a colourful night of discovery.

One Italian, one Frenchman – these composers flourished at the beginning of the 20th century as the modern orchestra was truly coming into its own, and one thing they have in common is an unerring ear for brilliant, evocative orchestral sound.

Discover Respighi’s update on music from the era of Vivaldi in The Birds, and Ravel’s exquisite interpretations of baroque fairy tales with the ugly-duckling Laideronnette and the enchanting Magical Garden.

RESPIGHI Two movements from The Birds:
Preludio & The Cuckoo
RAVEL Two movements from Mother Goose:
Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas &
The Magical Garden

Richard Gill conductor

Discover Respighi and Ravel, then hear The Birds in full (8, 9, 10, 12 September) and La Valse by Ravel in a stunning version for two pianos (16 May).

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – RESPIGHI The Birds: Preludio
Track 2 – RESPIGHI The Birds: The Cuckoo
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by István Kertész
DECCA ELOQUENCE 450 110-2

Track 3 – RAVEL Mother Goose: Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas
Track 4 – RAVEL Mother Goose: The Magical Garden
Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.
 

Peter Jackson’s epic vision of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy was supported by an equally epic soundtrack from Canadian composer Howard Shore. In each film, the music uses the power of a full symphony orchestra and massed voices to match the visceral impact of the journey unfolding on screen.

For these special performances we turn the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall into a cinema, screening part one of the trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring. For these special performances we turn the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall into a cinema, screening The Fellowship of the Ring with its Oscar-winning score performed live on stage.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Peter Jackson’s epic film complete
with music by Howard Shore

Ludwig Wicki conductor
Kaitlyn Lusk vocalist
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs
Sydney Children’s Choir

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

Please note the 7pm starting time for the evening performances. The concerts will conclude at 10.20pm (Fri, Sat) and 5.20pm (Sun).

 

Image credit: Columbia Artists Music

When Mahler died he left behind one movement and pages of sketches for his final symphony, with instructions that it all be burned. But his wishes were ignored, and since the 1960s orchestras have had the choice of performing one of several completions. These “Mahler 10” completions are the work of scholar-composers who’ve spent decades pondering the question: What would Mahler do?

So what will Ashkenazy do? For these concerts he has chosen the completion by Rudolf Barshai as one that powerfully identifies with Mahler’s spirit and intentions.

When pianists Pascal and Ami Rogé decided to commission a concerto to celebrate their wedding, Australian Matthew Hindson seemed an obvious choice of composer. Ami praises the “visual” character of Hindson’s music; Pascal admires the way it speaks directly to the heart, to listeners.

The new concerto promises to bring a spirit of joy to the first half of the concert, with music that’s colourful, affectionate, and even a little bit theatrical.

HINDSON Concerto for two pianos world premiere
MAHLER Symphony No.10 (Barshai completion)

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Ami Rogé piano
Pascal Rogé piano

Pre-concert talk by Scott Davie in the Northern Foyer, 45 minutes before each performance

Hear Pascal and Ami Rogé perform in a duo recital on 16 May.

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – MAHLER Symphony No.10: Andante – Adagio (excerpt)
Track 2 – MAHLER Symphony No.10: Andante – Adagio (excerpt)
 Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rafael Kubelik (1969)
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 463 738-2

Listen to short excerpts from the Barshai completion here.

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.
Mahler available for purchase here.

What’s better than one piano? Put two pianos together, says Pascal Rogé, and you get so much power and versatility of sound – “you can really feel like you’re an orchestra”.

It’s even more exciting when the two pianists are partners in life as well as in music. “To be able to share music on stage,” says Pascal, “makes the whole story much more personal – it’s a very, very special experience.”

Pascal and Ami Rogé invite you to share that experience in a rare duo recital that brings together the “orchestral” grandeur of German Romanticism and the vibrant colour of French music.

Among the highlights is the duo sonata that eventually became Brahms’s great piano quintet, and two French masterpieces better known as orchestral works. Nestled in the middle are miniatures by Poulenc: a perky waltz and an elegy for the great arts patron, the Princess de Polignac. “Play this elegy,” said Poulenc, “as if improvising, a cigar in your mouth and a glass of cognac on the piano.”

SCHUMANN arr. Debussy Six Etudes in Canon Form, Op.56
BRAHMS Sonata in F minor for two pianos, Op.34b
POULENC Elégie
POULENC The Embarkation for Cythera
DUKAS The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
RAVEL La Valse

Hear Pascal and Ami Rogé in the premiere of Matthew Hindson’s Concerto for two pianos (12, 13 May).

Mahler’s Ninth was his last completed symphony, which he was destined never to hear. The music is shot through with premonitions of death and deep longing, but it also soars on a vision of celestial bliss.

“It’s beyond being dark or light,” says Ashkenazy. “It’s another world, on another level of feeling and existence. And when it fades away, with the final notes in the violas, it’s as if the last strain of matter is disappearing in the universe.”

There’s no other symphony like it: two introspective slow movements wrapped around Mahler’s trademark peasant waltzes and sharp parodies. The first movement, said one friend, was the most heavenly thing Mahler ever wrote; the quiet finale quotes the farewell motto from Beethoven’s Les Adieux piano sonata.

Mozart offers a brilliant antidote to the introspection of Mahler, with an Olympian concerto that’s as ambitious as it is inventive and whimsical. Mahler’s finale may feel like the end of the world, but for Mozart all the world was before him and his music smiles with the confidence of youth.

MOZART Piano Concerto No.13 in C, K415
MAHLER Symphony No.9

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Steven Osborne piano

Pre-concert talk by Genevieve Lang in the Northern Foyer at 7.15pm.

These performances commemorate the 100th anniversary of Mahler’s death, on 18 May 1911.

REVIEW
Murray Black reviewing the concert for The Australian wrote:

"The great achievement of Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Sydney Symphony ... was to sweep us away on this powerful emotional and intellectual journey.'

The finale Adagio is one of music's great symphonic utterances and the performers made it sound exactly like that. Their well-judged speeds and superb dynamic control maintained the music's ebb and flow as it reached a blazing climax before receding into nothingness. No one could have been left unmoved."

Read the full review here.

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – MAHLER Symphony No.9: 1st movement
Track 2 – MAHLER Symphony No.9: 2nd movement
Track 3 – MAHLER Symphony No.9: 3rd movement
Track 4 – MAHLER Symphony No.9: 4th movement
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rafael Kubelik
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 463 738-2

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.
Mahler available for purchase. 

Important : please note that this concert will be held at Sydney Town Hall.

Sometimes a concert ticket is as good as a plane ticket. The Sydney Symphony makes a triumphant return to the Sydney Town Hall for a night of Viennese pleasures - not schnitzel, pastries or coffee, but the waltz.

The concert will feature some of the best-loved music of Johann Strauss Jr (including, of course, his signature Blue Danube waltz), together with favourites by Mozart and Suppé.

These infectious rhythms and graceful melodies will ensure you waltz home on a Viennese high! (Dance lessons not included.)

One night only!

Tickets from $35.

Lang Lang has the best job in the world: he’s in the business of transporting audiences into another world through music.
He’s the kind of pianist who sends thrills down your spine and woos you with the sublime beauty of his playing. Fans the world over respond to his extrovert and flamboyant stage presence and his tremendous command of the piano. More importantly, they respond to the way he communicates his love of the music.

Lang Lang is just one of two pianists in the world to have given a recital in the 5000-seat arena of the Royal Albert Hall. You can hear him in the more “intimate” surroundings of the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall in this exclusive recital.

Be transported when Lang Lang plays some of the most powerful, impassioned and colourful music in the solo piano repertoire.

BEETHOVEN Sonata in C, Op.2 No.3
BEETHOVEN Appassionata Sonata, Op.57
ALBÉNIZ Iberia, Book I
PROKOFIEV Sonata No.7

Lang Lang piano

Pre-concert talk by David Garrett in the Northern Foyer at 7.15pm.

Hear Lang Lang play concertos with the Sydney Symphony: Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.2 (10, 11 June) and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 (14 June).

Find out more:
www.langlang.com
www.thelanglangfoundation.org

Lang Lang is the kind of pianist who sends thrills down your spine and woos you with the sublime beauty of his playing. Fans the world over respond to his extrovert and flamboyant stage presence and his tremendous command of the piano. More importantly, they respond to the way he communicates his love of the music.

And in 2011 Lang Lang makes exclusive appearances in Sydney, performing some of the great music from the heart of the Romantic tradition. Hear  his breathtaking technique and effusive, heartfelt interpretations in Rachmaninoff’s dark-hued Second Concerto.

“…pure visceral thrills…” (The New York Times)

TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.4
RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No.2

Jahja Ling conductor
Lang Lang piano

Pre-concert talk by Scott Davie in the Northern Foyer at 7.15pm.

Hear Lang Lang in solo recital at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall (8 June) and with the Sydney Symphony playing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 (14 June).

Find out more:
www.langlang.com
www.thelanglangfoundation.org

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.4: 1st movement
Track 2 – TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.4: 3rd movement
Russian National Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Plentnev
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 449 967-2
Track 3 – RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No.2: 2nd movement
Track 4 – RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No.2: 3rd movement
Lang Lang (piano) with the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre conducted by Valerie Gergiev
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 477 5231

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

Lang Lang made his break to stardom, stepping in to play Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the age of 17. It was a concerto that he’d always dreamed of performing as a boy, and now it’s become one of his signature pieces.

Experience the flamboyant stage presence and stunning virtuosity of Lang Lang when he performs this Tchaikovsky concerto with the Sydney Symphony.

Lang Lang has become possibly the “hottest artist on the classical music planet” (The New York Times).

MENDELSSOHN The Hebrides
SIBELIUS Symphony No.2
TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No.1

Jahja Ling conductor
Lang Lang piano

Pre-concert talk by Scott Davie in the Northern Foyer at 7.15pm.

Hear Lang Lang in solo recital at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall (8 June) and with the Sydney Symphony playing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.2 (10, 11 June).

Find out more:
www.langlang.com
www.thelanglangfoundation.org

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – SIBELIUS Symphony No.2: 1st movement
L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Ernest Ansermet
DECCA ELOQUENCE 480 0044

Track 2 – TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No.1: 1st movement
Track 3 – TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No.1 : 2nd movement
Track 4 – TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No.1: 3rd movement
Lang Lang (piano), Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 474 291-2

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

Mendelssohn’s Hebrides overture is the ultimate Romantic miniature, inspired by the gloomy beauty of an island cavern (Fingal’s Cave) and the fierceness of the northern seas – you can taste the salt spray even in the warm comfort of the concert hall.

Possibly only Sibelius – another Romantic at heart – could have captured the atmosphere better. His most popular symphony is brimming with the patriotic feeling of Finlandia, catching the ancient spirit of Finnish melodies even as he pursues his own brand of concentrated originality.

Everything that we love about Sibelius can be heard in the Second Symphony: the pastoral simplicity, the stirring power of the brass, the yearning melodies and the bold spaciousness of his triumphant finale.

MENDELSSOHN The Hebrides
SIBELIUS Symphony No.2

Jahja Ling conductor

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – MENDELSSOHN The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave
L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Ernest Ansermet
DECCA ELOQUENCE 480 0382

Track 2 – SIBELIUS Symphony No.2: 2nd movement
Track 3 – SIBELIUS Symphony No.2: 3rd movement
Track 4 – SIBELIUS Symphony No.2: 4th movement
L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Ernest Ansermet
DECCA ELOQUENCE 480 0044

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

The Gilbert & Sullivan Spectacular!

The Sydney Symphony presents The Gilbert & Sullivan Spectacular – a costumed extravaganza featuring the greatest hits from The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, HMS Pinafore, The Gondoliers and others. Some of Australia’s most popular young opera stars – Amelia Farrugia, Dominica Matthews, Stephen Smith and Richard Alexander – will serenade you with classics such as ‘Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes’, ‘Poor Wand’ring One’, ‘A Policeman’s Lot Is Not A Happy One’ and ‘I Have A Song to Sing, O!’

The Sydney Symphony and a special Gilbert & Sullivan chorus will be conducted by Guy Noble, and the special guest will be Australia’s Mr G&S himself, Stuart Maunder.

Mozart wrote his concerto for flute and harp at the height of a Paris craze for concertos with multiple soloists – in this case the soloists were a French diplomat and his harp-playing daughter. The result is awash with rococo charm, and everything about the flute’s glowing lines and the harp’s rippling eloquence is designed to please.

The showing off expected in a concerto doesn’t seem to have appealed to the introverted Schubert, but he comes close in his light-hearted Concert Piece, a concerto in miniature with a hint of Beethoven running in its veins.

And if you’re not smiling by the end of the flute and harp concerto, then Mozart’s “Nocturnal Serenade” will do the trick – it’s bursting with an impish sense of humour and, as it turns out, everyone’s a soloist!

SCHUBERT Concert Piece for violin and orchestra
MOZART Flute and Harp Concerto
MOZART Serenata notturna

Michael Dauth violin-director
Emma Sholl flute
Louise Johnson harp

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – MOZART Flute and Harp Concerto: 1st movement (Allegro)
Track 2 – MOZART Flute and Harp Concerto: 2nd movement (Andantino)
Karlheinz Zoeller (flute), Nicanor Zabaleta (harp), Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Ernst Marzendorfer
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON ELOQUENCE 450 035-2

Track 3 – MOZART Serenata notturna: 1st movement (March)
Track 4 – MOZART Serenata notturna: 3rd movement (Rondeau)
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peter Maag
DECCA ELOQUENCE 476 9692

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

In Venice, Liszt found gondoliers singing the epic poetry of Torquato Tasso, a Renaissance genius embraced in folklore. He said hearing their mournful song was like watching the reflections of the fading evening light on a mirror of water, and the music he was inspired to write transforms that simple beginning into glorious triumph.

Schumann offers abstract pictures in his fantasia-turned-piano concerto. Composed for his beloved Clara, the concerto is prized as much for its irresistible radiance and tender intimacy as for its bravura, which launches the soloist headlong into Schumann’s spirited poetry.

But it’s Mussorgsky and Ravel who turn the concert hall into an art gallery with music that promenades from one brilliant miniature to another. Exotic visions rub shoulders with earthy portraits and flights of fancy in this tribute to an artist’s imagination.

LISZT Tasso, Lament and Triumph
SCHUMANN Piano Concerto
MUSSORGSKY orch. Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition

Pinchas Steinberg conductor
Ingrid Fliter piano

Pre-concert talk by Felicity Glennie-Holmes in the Northern Foyer at 7.15pm.

Hear Ingrid Fliter in recital, performing Beethoven and Chopin (4 July).

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – LISZT Tasso, Lament and Triumph: 2nd motif
Orchestre de Paris conducted by George Solti
DECCA ELOQUENCE 478 0236 – Ultimate Liszt (5CD set)

Track 2 – MUSSORGSKY/RAVEL Pictures at an Exhibition: Promenade
Track 3 – MUSSORGSKY/RAVEL Pictures at an Exhibition: The Old Castle
Track 4 – MUSSORGSKY/RAVEL Pictures at an Exhibition: The Great Gate of Kiev
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Chailly
DECCA ELOQUENCE 480 0047

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

Every four years the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award is given to a pianist of superb skill and profound musicianship. The goal is to reward and nurture extraordinary artistry, and in 2006 Argentinean pianist Ingrid Fliter was named the fifth Gilmore Artist.

Since then, her career has blossomed, with concerts throughout Europe, Asia and the United States, and in 2011 she makes her Australian recital and concerto debut, with the Sydney Symphony.

In her recital program, Ingrid Fliter offers the rich contrasts of Beethoven and Chopin – power, heroism and classical forms on the one hand, subtle feeling, elegance and fantasy on the other.

Her interpretations of both composers are persuasive and charismatic, and when it comes to Chopin, you would think she had been born to play this music. As BBC Music magazine described her: “an artist with something considered and challenging to say about a composer caught on the cusp between classical restraint and romantic rhetoric.”

BEETHOVEN
32 Variations on an original theme
Sonata in E flat, Op.31 No.3
CHOPIN
Nocturne in B, Op.9 No.3
Waltz in A flat, Op.34 No.1
Waltz in B minor, Op.69 No.2
Waltz in D flat, Op.64 No.1 (‘Minute’ Waltz)
Waltz in A flat, Op.64 No.3
Waltz in G flat, Op.70 No.1
Waltz in A flat, Op.42
Waltz in A minor, Op.Posth.
Ballade No.4 in F minor, Op.52

Hear Ingrid Fliter perform Schumann’s Piano Concerto (29 June, 1, 2 July).

Tickets to The Planets are selling fast but some view-restricted and part view-restricted seats are available for all nights – please call our Box Office on (02) 8215 4600 for more information.

Gustav Holst’s Planets wasn’t written for the movies, but it could have been – it has the monumental character and emotional force of a great film score and more than a few film composers are indebted to it.

With this spectacular visual presentation from the Houston Symphony and filmmaker Duncan Copp, we return the favour – accompanying Holst’s music with stunning high-definition footage from NASA space probes and the Hubble Telescope. Holst’s romantic, astrological vision meets modern astronomy.

Emmanuel Pahud, principal flute of the Berlin Philharmonic, is the soloist in the first half of the program. He’ll play a fiendishly virtuosic concerto by Swiss composer Michael Jarrell (music that tries to let us hear silence), and take the leading part in Bach’s dancing Orchestral Suite No.2.

BACH Orchestral Suite No.2
JARRELL …un temps du silence… (Flute Concerto)
HOLST The Planets

Ludovic Morlot conductor
Emmanuel Pahud flute
Ladies of the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

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

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – BACH Orchestral Suite No.2: Badinerie
Wolfgang Schulz (flute) with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra conducted by
Karl Münchinger
DECCA ELOQUENCE 458 179-2

Track 2 – HOLST The Planets:  Mars the bringer of War
Track 3 – HOLST The Planets:  Jupiter (first theme)
Track 4 – HOLST The Planets:  Jupiter (second theme)
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Neville Marriner
PHILIPS ELOQUENCE 450 053-2

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

Young American talent James Gaffigan is making his Sydney Symphony debut, and for this first meeting he’s chosen “colour repertoire” – music that exploits the full orchestra in the way that the French and the Russians know best.

His own suite from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet follows the original narrative, bringing together the highlights of this dramatic ballet. The scene is set with the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets, and there’s the youthful ardour of the balcony scene and the hot-blooded duels, before the music ends, as it does in the theatre, with Juliet’s death – tragic and sublime.

Sibelius’s Violin Concerto is equally sublime – powerful drama, spinning melodies and catchy rhythms, all combined in blazing virtuosity. There’s no Finnish saga winding its way through this music, but the journey to the rollicking finale is no less exciting.

The concerto is perfect music for Sergey Khachatryan, who at 15 became the youngest-ever winner of the Jean Sibelius Competition.

BEETHOVEN Leonore Overture No.2
SIBELIUS Violin Concerto
PROKOFIEV Romeo and Juliet: Suite

James Gaffigan conductor
Sergey Khachatryan violin

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

Hear Tchaikovsky’s take on the Romeo and Juliet story (27, 29, 30 July).

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – SIBELIUS Violin Concerto: 1st movement
Track 2 – SIBELIUS Violin Concerto: 3rd movement
Boris Belkin (violin), Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy
DECCA ELOQUENCE 466 905-2

Track 3 – PROKOFIEV Romeo and Juliet:  Masks
Track 4 – PROKOFIEV Romeo and Juliet:  The Young Juliet
L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Ernest Ansermet
DECCA ELOQUENCE 480 0830

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

Tomorrow’s orchestra makes a welcome return to the Sydney Symphony’s concert season. The faces are new but the playing is as exhilarating as ever and brimming over with undisguised enthusiasm. As The Sydney Morning Herald said in 2002, “Hear it, feel it, this is what the orchestral experience is all about.”

For this concert, Danish conductor Thomas Dausgaard has chosen a masterpiece by his fellow countryman, Carl Nielsen. The music begins in a pastoral vein, with all the beauty of the orchestra on show, before things turn sinister with the entry of a side drum. And rhythm remains the driving force, bringing the symphony to its brilliant and radiant climax.

Debussy’s vast rendition of the sea is another piece to show off the talent of young musicians, with its mysterious colours and fabulous effects.

At the heart of the evening program is a new concerto by Carl Vine, written especially for Sydney Symphony concertmaster Dene Olding. Its starting point is the solo violin, quietly accompanied by orchestra – nothing, says Vine, has the potential to sound more alone. But in music, as in life, there’s a need for community as well as solitude – and perhaps only through music can we understand the tension between the two.

DEBUSSY La Mer
VINE Violin Concerto PREMIERE
NIELSEN Symphony No.5

Thomas Dausgaard conductor
Dene Olding violin
Australian Youth Orchestra

(Tea & Symphony: Debussy and Nielsen only)

Pre-concert talk by Genevieve Lang in the Northern Foyer at 5.45pm (20 and 21 July only).

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – NIELSEN Symphony No.5: 1st movement (opening theme)
Track 2 – NIELSEN Symphony No.5: 1st movement (second theme)
Track 3 – NIELSEN Symphony No.5: 2nd movement (opening theme)
Track 4 – NIELSEN Symphony No.5: 2nd movement (second theme)
Danish State Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Thomas Jensen
DECCA ELOQUENCE 480 1858
 
Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

This recital begins with Beethoven in his heroic and monumental character. The Opus 35 Variations are almost like a trial run for the finale of his Eroica Symphony the following year, using the same theme and the same richly inventive strategies. The Waldstein is one of Beethoven’s most exhilarating sonatas – two movements of unrelenting drive surround an island of calm.

From Beethoven, the monarch of the piano, the program shifts to Liszt, the prince of virtuosos. In Liszt the piano sings with Romantic ardour, regardless of how many notes go whizzing by, and among his most effective and appealing works are his paraphrases on popular operas. For this recital, Freddy Kempf offers Liszt’s personal take on themes from Lucia di Lammermoor and Don Giovanni – bravura music that proves the piano can be a diva too!

“Kempf captures the essence of Liszt in playing of wistful nostalgia, yearning passion, with arpeggios and cadenzas that shimmer and scintillate…”
(International Piano)

BEETHOVEN
Eroica Variations, Op.35
Waldstein Sonata, Op.53
ROSSINI arr. Liszt La danza (from Soirées musicales)
LISZT Petrarch Sonnet No.104
LISZTafter Donizetti Réminiscences de Lucia di Lammermoor
LISZTafter Mozart Réminiscences de Don Giovanni

Hear Freddy Kempf perform Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (27, 29, 30 July).

A living legend, Randy Newman is a gifted composer and social satirist, with decades of hits as well as a stellar career as a film composer winning an Oscar for his work on Monsters Inc and a total of 19 Oscar nominations for Toy Story, The Natural, Meet the Parents among others.
 
In this rare concert performance in Australia, Randy will perform and present some of his greatest successes, including Short People, You Can Leave Your Hat On, You've got a Friend in Me and Louisiana, as well as music from his magnificent movie scores.
 
Two shows only. Tickets start at just $35.        

We’re building a musical world for kids – from Carl Vine’s earth-stomping Percussion Symphony to the cosmic power of Mozart’s ‘Jupiter’, plus a rocket burst of Beethoven and some Tchaikovsky.

Join the Sydney Symphony and Sydney Sinfonia for a family-friendly and educational afternoon of overtures, symphonies and more!

Designed especially for kids aged 6 and up, this fun and interactive one-hour concert is the perfect way to introduce young hearts to live orchestral music.

Conductor and musical educator Richard Gill will be your guide. One performance only. Come early or stay late to enjoy special kids’ activities in the foyer – including an opportunity to meet the musicians and get up close to the instruments.

Join TV superstar Shaun Micallef, conductor extraordinaire Guy Noble and the Sydney Symphony in a fun-filled night of superheroes, dinosaurs, aliens, wizards and Jedi Knights.

Get ready to hear the highlights from John Williams' classic movie scores, including Star Wars, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Superman, and many, many more.

Dressing up encouraged.

Two performances only, Sydney Opera House.

Brahms wrote his Double Concerto as a kind of peace offering – intended to restore his old friendship with the great violinist Joachim. It worked: at the rehearsals the two men spoke for the first time in years. The concerto rejects flashy showmanship in favour of glowing intimacy and a dialogue between the two soloists, and Brahms weaves in passing references to his friend, including the Hungarian flavour of the vibrant finale.

There’s no mood of conciliation in Shostakovich’s celebrated Leningrad Symphony from 1942. It was written in a city under siege, and for Shostakovich its composition was an act of defiance, a way of saying that life would go on as usual.

The symphony’s harrowing journey begins in conflict, with the menacing approach of the enemy, and ends in a spectacular but ambivalent victory. Relief comes in the gentler moments, but this fiercely powerful and intense music is not meant to put you at your ease. It’s “how I hear the war,” said the composer.

BRAHMS Double Concerto
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No.7, Leningrad

Vasily Petrenko conductor
Alban Gerhardt cello
Karen Gomyo violin

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

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – BRAHMS Double Concerto: 2nd movement
Henryk Szering (violin), János Starker (cello), Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
conducted by Bernard Haitink
PHILIPS ELOQUENCE 464 369-2

Track 2 – SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No.7 (Leningrad):  1st movement
Track 3 – SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No.7 (Leningrad):  2nd movement
Track 4 – SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No.7 (Leningrad):  4th movement
St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy
DECCA 475 8748 (From complete symphonies set)

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

When we performed Mahler’s Eighth Symphony in 2010, Sara Macliver made a breathtaking appearance as the Mater Gloriosa, “beaming with pristine accuracy from the organ loft” (The Sydney Morning Herald).

In this special concert she gives us a chance to experience anew the sound of her angelic soprano voice radiating through the Concert Hall, accompanied by the king of instruments.

Sara Macliver will be joined by Sydney’s leading organist, David Drury, and our outstanding young orchestral Fellows with their Sydney Symphony mentors. And the program they’re assembling for your delight will range from the joyous sounds of the immortal Bach to the floating perfection of the “only” Pie Jesu – from moments of great brilliance to intimate contemplation.

My heart ever faithful, sing praises, be joyful!

JS BACH Prelude & Fugue in G, BWV 541
JS BACH Cantata No.209, ‘Non sa che sia dolore’
DEBUSSY arr. Sachs Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
JS BACH ‘Mein gläubiges Herze’ (My Heart ever faithful, from Cantata No.68)
WIDOR Andante sostenuto (from Organ Symphony No.9, Symphonie Gothique)
FAURÉ Pie Jesu (from the Requiem)
VIERNE Chorale (from Organ Symphony No.2)

David Drury organ
Sara Macliver soprano
with the 2011 Fellows and
musicians of the Sydney Symphony

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – BACH Cantata 68 Mein glaubiges Herze: Aria (soprano)
Track 2 – BACH Cantata 68 Mein glaubiges Herze: Aria (instrumental playout
Sara Macliver (soprano), with the Orchestra of the Antipodes conducted by
Antony Walker
ABC CLASSICS 476 118-3

Track 3 – FAURE Requiem Op.48: Pie Jesu (opening)
Track 4 – FAURE Requiem Op.48: Pie Jesu (conclusion)
Sara Macliver (soprano), with Sinfonia Australis conducted by Antony Walker
ABC CLASSICS 472 045-2

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

Brahms’s Serenade No.2 introduces an unexpected sight to a Sydney Symphony concert: an orchestra without violins. Instead, the violas are given the lead, the woodwinds and horns are placed in vivid relief, and the music takes on a rich, autumnal colour.

This serenade is one of Brahms’s earliest forays into symphonic music and it caught him in a blissful mood: “I have seldom written music with such delight.”

The dreamy musings of Brahms are followed by Mozart’s longest and most magnificent piano concerto – profoundly inventive and expansive in feeling. In this concert, Geoffrey Lancaster returns to the City Recital Hall stage, bringing his flawless technique and bold musical vision to the music of a Classical genius.

BRAHMS Serenade No.2
MOZART Piano Concerto No.25 in C, K503

Geoffrey Lancaster piano-director
Roger Benedict viola-director

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – BRAHMS Serenade No.2:  Scherzo
Track 2 – BRAHMS Serenade No.2:  Rondo
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by Kurt Masur
PHILIPS ELOQUENCE 442 8298

Track 3 – MOZART Piano Concerto No.25 in C, K503:  1st movement
Track 4 – MOZART Piano Concerto No.25 in C, K503:  3rd movement
Géza Anda (piano), Camerata Academica of the Salzburg Mozarteum
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON ELOQUENCE 463 236-2

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.
 

When he was 20, Mendelssohn set off on the 19th-century answer to the gap year – a Grand Tour. And it was under the blue skies of Rome that he began his Italian Symphony. It’s sunny and effervescent music, marrying a breathless, bounding momentum to his trademark delicacy.

Strauss’s lively first horn concerto and Respighi’s picturesque orchestral suite both pay homage to the classical past. Strauss is influenced by the grace of Mozart and Mendelssohn, while The Birds steals its melodies from baroque character pieces for perfect Italianate charm.

This concert itinerary leaves us in Rome with a native and a foreigner. But it begins in a fantasy world with The Fair Melusine – a story of enchantment, a mermaid and a broken promise. Mendelssohn says we shouldn’t let our imaginations run away with the music, but that’s exactly what it inspires us to do. 

MENDELSSOHN The Fair Melusine – Overture
R STRAUSS Horn Concerto No.1
RESPIGHI The Birds
MENDELSSOHN Symphony No.4, Italian

Nicholas McGegan conductor
Ben Jacks horn

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

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – MENDELSSOHN The Fair Melusine:  Opening theme
L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Ernest Ansermet
DECCA ELOQUENCE 480 0382
Track 2 – R STRAUSS Horn Concerto No.1:  1st movement (Allegro)
Track 3 – R STRAUSS Horn Concerto No.1: 2nd movement (Andante)
Barry Tuckwell (horn), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy
DECCA ELOQUENCE 476 2699

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

Evgeny Kissin is a great pianist in the Russian tradition, with the sweeping style, generous tone and powerful but supple technique that marks an heir of Rachmaninoff. But for him, music is a language, and performance is about communicating meaning, and he can conjure a world of imagination – reflective and insightful – even as he dazzles with his astonishing mastery of the instrument.

Kissin makes his Sydney debut with a virtuoso recital in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall playing Liszt – the 19th century’s great virtuoso-composer. From the intricate rippling of a Transcendental Etude to characteristic scenes of Venice and Naples, it’s a program to show Liszt’s brilliant and personal style – with the monumental Sonata in B minor at its heart.

“He is a born musician and a born great pianist.” Vladimir Ashkenazy 

LISZT
Ricordanza (from Transcendental Etudes)
Sonata in B minor
Funérailles (from Harmonies poétiques et religieuses)
Vallée d’Obermann (from Years of Pilgrimage, Book I)
Venezia e Napoli, S162

Pre-concert talk by David Garrett in the Northern Foyer at 7.15pm.

In his Sydney debut tour Evgeny Kissin also performs Grieg (22 September) and Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.1 (24 September).

Evgeny Kissin is a phenomenon, says Ashkenazy, “he possesses an enormous natural gift that’s beyond description.” There’s more to his astonishing mastery of the instrument than a powerful technique and generous tone – when Kissin plays, the piano is his voice, drawing you into the music.

In the second of his Australian debut concerts, Evgeny Kissin performs Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor – brilliant and high-spirited music in the hands of a great pianist.

Please note change of concerto from the published season brochure.

BRAHMS Symphony No.1
GRIEG Piano Concerto in A minor

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Evgeny Kissin piano

Pre-concert talk by Kim Waldock in the Northern Foyer at 7.15pm.

In his Sydney debut tour Evgeny Kissin also performs a solo recital of music by Liszt (15 September) and Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.1 (24 September).

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – BRAHMS Symphony No.1: 4th movement
L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Ernest Ansermet
DECCA ELOQUENCE 480 0448

Track 2 – GRIEG Piano Concerto in A minor: 1st movement
Track 3 – GRIEG Piano Concerto in A minor: 2nd movement
Track 4 – GRIEG Piano Concerto in A minor: 3rd movement
Peter Jablonski (piano) Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Peter Maag
DECCA ELOQUENCE 480 0482

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

Brahms wasn’t the kind of composer to dash off a symphony, and it took him more than 14 years to write his first. Take heart, late bloomers: he was 43 years old by the time it was done. The music was written with the thunderous step of the great Beethoven always in earshot, but at the joyous conclusion of this dramatic symphony Brahms has the last word – perfect and inimitable.

BEETHOVENThe Creatures of Prometheus: Overture
BRAHMS Symphony No.1 in C minor, Op.68

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – BRAHMS Symphony No.1: 1st movement
Track 2 – BRAHMS Symphony No.1: 2nd movement
Track 3 – BRAHMS Symphony No.1: 3rd movement
Track 4 – BRAHMS Symphony No.1: 4th movement
L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Ernest Ansermet
DECCA ELOQUENCE 480 0448

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

Brett Dean’s opera Bliss was premiered to great acclaim in 2010, and in 2009 he won the world’s most prestigious and valuable composition prize, the Grawemeyer Award, for his violin concerto The Lost Art of Letter Writing, joining some of the most illustrious names in music.

Discover this leading Australian composer through his Etüdenfest, an Olympian celebration of all the virtuoso possibilities available to an orchestra of strings.

Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos are landmarks of orchestral writing, and No.3, also for strings, reveals the vital European tradition that underpins Dean’s distinctive style.

DEAN Etüdenfest
BACH Brandenburg Concerto No.3: 1st movement

Richard Gill conductor

Discover Brett Dean, then join us for the Sydney premiere of his violin concerto, The Lost Art of Letter Writing (1, 2, 3 December).

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Tracks 1 to 4 – BRETT DEAN Etudenfest: excerpts
Caroline Almonte (piano) with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sebastian Lang-Lessing
ABC CLASSICS 476 3219
 
Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

There’s a reason Dvorák’s New World was voted No.1 in the ABC’s Classic 100 Symphony. Beethoven might be more impressive, but Dvorák speaks directly to the ear and the emotions.

His harmonies are crisp, his melodies are rich and singable, his ideas are stirring, and his musical personality is straightforward. Even when he’s in a melancholy mood, he can’t quite hide the vital inspiration of his Bohemian homeland.

Lutoslawski’s Fourth Symphony was also composed for the “New World” and for a new world of sound. It’s compact and lucid, setting out to intrigue and then satisfy with its eloquence and clear lines. Mozart’s music is all about eloquence and clear lines too, and every one of his piano concertos is a miracle, including K467, the ‘Elvira Madigan’.

As Stephen Hough describes it, the concerto offers noble lyricism in its first movement, blue sky with clouds in the second (truly a troubled peace), and high-jinks fun in the finale.

LUTOSLAWSKI Symphony No.4
MOZART Piano Concerto No.21 in C, K467
DVORÁK Symphony No.9, New World

Mark Wigglesworth conductor
Stephen Hough piano

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

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – DVORÁK Symphony No.9 (From the New World): 1st movement
Track 2 – DVORÁK Symphony No.9 (From the New World): 2nd movement (Largo)
Track 3 – DVORÁK Symphony No.9 (From the New World): 3rd movement
Track 4 – DVORÁK Symphony No.9 (From the New World): 4th movement
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Antal Doráti
PHILIPS ELOQUENCE 476 8482
 
Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

Nigel Westlake’s Missa Solis is a ‘Mass for the Sun’, but it’s also a powerful tribute to his son, Eli, who was killed in 2008 – a personal requiem. Its texts range from the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying and an ancient hymn by the Pharoah Akhenaten to writings by Galileo.

Some of Missa Solis began life as the soundtrack for Solarmax – its fingerprints are in the larger-than-life sound of voices and orchestra and the filmic character of the music. This is music that's full of colour, says Westlake, and often very optimistic. But there are also moments of great lightness and effervescence, simplicity and quiet – meditative moments that pick up on the existential contemplation of Ives' Unanswered Question.

Goethe’s play Egmont gave Beethoven his favourite themes: the drama of political oppression, the human struggle for liberty. In these concerts we present all of Beethoven’s music for the play with a narration based on Goethe, and actor-musician Eddie Perfect tells the inspiring tragedy of a great hero.

IVES The Unanswered Question
WESTLAKE Missa Solis – Requiem for Eli* SYDNEY PREMIERE
BEETHOVEN Egmont – Incidental music

Richard Gill conductor
Nigel Westlake conductor*
Cantillation
Eddie Perfect narrator

(Tea & Symphony: Ives and Beethoven only)

Pre-concert talk by Genevieve Lang in the Northern Foyer at 5.45pm (19 and 20 October only).

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – WESTLAKE Missa Solis – Requiem for Eli: excerpt 
Soundtrack to Solarmax conducted by Nigel Westlake
ABC CLASSICS 476 176-1

Track 2 – BEETHOVEN Egmont: Overture
Track 3 – BEETHOVEN Egmont: Battle music
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by George Szell
DECCA 475 6780
 
Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music

Anne Sofie von Otter is unrivalled for her exquisite sound and the gracious eloquence of her music-making. Whether in the opera theatre or the more intimate environment of a lieder recital, she’s an artist who communicates with genuine emotional power.

There’s nothing she can’t do, and her tremendous versatility extends to interpretations of great songs from outside the classical canon, bringing jazzy sass to Gershwin and a soulful, dusky sound to pop ballads.

At the heart of her Sydney program sits The Songs of the Auvergne – simple peasant songs given colourful orchestral accompaniments, from the yearning “Bailero” to exuberant dance tunes. Friends Svante Henryson (cello) and Bengt Forsberg (piano) will also feature in this program and everyone comes together for an irresistible finale.

MILHAUD The Creation of the World
CANTELOUBE Songs of the Auvergne: Highlights
KRÁSA Overture for small orchestra
HENRYSON Cello Concerto No.2: Allegretto
POPULAR MELODIES…
They can’t take that away from me
Answer me, my love
One Note Samba
Speak Low
I’m a stranger here myself
Like an angel passing through my room
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend

Anne Sofie von Otter mezzo-soprano
Svante Henryson cello
Bengt Forsberg piano
Nicholas Carter conductor

Pre-concert talk by Robert Johnson in the Northern Foyer at 7.15pm.

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – CANTELOUBE Songs of the Auvergne: Bailero 1st verse
Track 2 – CANTELOUBE Songs of the Auvergne: Bailero 4th verse
Track 3 – CANTELOUBE Songs of the Auvergne: Lo fiolaire: excerpt
Sara Macliver (soprano), with the Queensland Orchestra conducted by Brett Kelly
ABC CLASSICS 476 5703
 
Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

In 2009 Brett Dean’s violin concerto won the Grawemeyer Award – a kind of Nobel prize for composers – and we’re thrilled to be presenting its Sydney premiere with the soloist for whom it was written, Frank Peter Zimmermann.

“Brett has a very human way of writing music,” says conductor Jonathan Nott, “it has a soul to it, an expressive line, fantastic colours, and he invites you to enjoy the sound.”

The concerto has a story, too. Each of its four movements is prefaced by a letter: Brahms to Clara Schumann, Vincent van Gogh, the composer Hugo Wolf, and Ned Kelly’s famous Jerilderie letter. And the music mirrors the intensity of love (with a quote from Brahms’s Fourth), the pain of an artist, waltz-like decadence and the bushranger’s defiance.

Building the program around this powerful heart, Jonathan Nott has chosen a “symphony in miniature” to prepare the way for the concerto, and the expansive singing lines and heavenly length of Schubert’s final symphony.

This concert brings together three composers who break the mould in different ways and it unites a contemporary Australian voice with the German Romantic tradition that has shaped his style.

BRAHMS Tragic Overture
DEAN The Lost Art of Letter Writing – Violin Concerto SYDNEY PREMIERE
SCHUBERT Symphony No.9 (Great C Major)

Jonathan Nott conductor
Frank Peter Zimmermann violin

Pre-concert talk by Robert Murray in the Northern Foyer, 45 minutes before each performance

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – BRAHMS Tragic Overture:  Opening
L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Ernest Ansermet
DECCA ELOQUENCE 480 0448

Track 2 – SCHUBERT Symphony No.9 (Great C Major): 1st movement (opening)
Track 3 – SCHUBERT Symphony No.9 (Great C Major): 3rd movement (opening)
Track 4 – SCHUBERT Symphony No.9 (Great C Major): 4th movement (opening)
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by George Solti
DECCA  460 311-2

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.