Thursday Afternoon Symphony

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ABOUT THE CONCERT

They say the beginning is a very good place to start. With Mahler that’s true, and as we set off with this 20-something composer there are twin strands to be discovered – symphonies and songs. The Songs of a Wayfarer follow the fortunes of a roaming apprentice, bereft and alone. It’s a melancholy subject, but in Mahler’s hands it’s beautifully poignant. On the other hand, his first symphony, composed around the same time, catches him in a good mood and – for Mahler! – a concise frame of mind.

Here is the emerging Mahler sound in music that sings and revels in youthful humour. There’s irony too. This is the symphony that famously turns “Frère Jacques” into a funeral march: the forest animals following a dead hunter. Blumine is a literal flowering of musical beauty, once a part of the symphony and recovered from the cutting room floor. From one appealing moment to the next, this is the perfect concert to discover the genuine Mahler voice.

R STRAUSS Don Juan
MAHLER Blumine
MAHLER Songs of a Wayfarer
MAHLER Symphony No.1

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Markus Eiche baritone

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

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – R STRAUSS Don Juan: two highlights
Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 480 04411
Track 2 – MAHLER Songs of a Wayfarer: Ging heut’ morgen übers Feld (As I walked this morning through the field)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone soloist
Track 3 – MAHLER Symphony No.1: 2nd movement
Track 4 – MAHLER Symphony No.1: finale
Mahler tracks: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rafael Kubelik
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 449 735-2
 
Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.

Currently available from iTunes: Mahler 1 and Wayfarer; Don Juan

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

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

** Customer Service Notice : Mahler 3 with the SSO **
Please note there will be NO interval at the Sydney Symphony’s performances of Mahler’s Third Symphony on 2, 3 and 4 December. The concert will last approximately 1 hr 45 mins. Latecomers will be admitted only after Part I, approximately 35 mins after the start of the concert.
We encourage you to arrive in good time to avoid missing the first part of the concert.

LISTEN TO SAMPLES

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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

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

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

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

LISTEN TO SAMPLES

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

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.

You can find out more about our guest violinist Daniel Hope via his website at www.danielhope.com.

MUSIC ON THE BRINK
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

PRE-CONCERT TALKS

Free pre-concert talk by Tony Cane in the Northern Foyer, 45 minutes before each concert.

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