EnergyAustralia Master Series

Great music, familiar and new, from across the centuries. Stellar artists who bring maturity and insight. The power of great music-making. You.

Three-Concert PackageORSix-Concert PackageORNine-Concert Package

Whether you’re a recent convert or have years of concert-going behind you, bring your ears, your curiosity and your desire for a stimulating journey of inspiration.

In 2010 we’ll be playing some of the most exciting works in the repertoire, from the time of Bach and Handel, when the orchestra was just beginning, to music of our own century. And at the very heart of the series are three concerts from our Mahler Odyssey, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy.

CONCERTS ARE IN THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE CONCERT HALL WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY OR SATURDAY | 8PM

Autumn Sampler Packs Available Online
To add either of the following 2 concerts to your three concert package at this special price (C-res, maximum of 4 tickets), contact the box office on 02 8215 4600 (open Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm).

Midori Plays Classics ($69 ea) | Tchaikovsky Spectacular ($50ea)

Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks

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Handel’s pyrotechnic masterpiece makes a festive finale to a virtuoso concert.

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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

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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

RACH 2

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When we say “Rach 2” we’re talking about the one of the most popular concertos in the Romantic tradition. Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto combines a rich and rhapsodic vision with astonishing virtuosity.

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Rachmaninoff was the last of the great Romantic composer-pianists, and the music he wrote for himself to play marries supreme virtuosity and impeccable style to a gift for rhapsodic melodies and richly imagined harmonies. There are no piano concertos quite like Rachmaninoff’s, and Bernd Glemser will bring to the second concerto the grandeur and distinction it demands.

But don’t let this popular concerto distract you from the frame in which it sits. Shostakovich’s intriguing symphony is like a toy shop, with a riot of clever quotations from other composers – and himself! We’re playing it first so we can leave you with the strangely familiar conclusion of Rossini’s William Tell overture galloping through your ears.

SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No.15
RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No.2
ROSSINI William Tell: Overture

Mark Wigglesworth conductor
Bernd Glemser piano

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Tracks 1 and 2 – RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No.2
Alicia de Larrocha, piano, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit
DECCA 476 7701
Track 3 – SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No.15
Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Georg Solti
DECCA 442 8235
Track 4 – ROSSINI William Tell Overture
Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta
DECCA 476 9907

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music

Currently available for purchase:
Shostakovich
Rossini