A Beethoven hero, a Tchaikovsky villain and a breathtaking Prokofiev concerto.
In recent years, Osmo Vanska has emerged as one of the great Beethoven conductors of our time – his Pastoral Symphony here in Sydney in 2001 married vivid clarity and exciting contrasts to a lustrous and eloquent sound. Ten years later, he returns with the Eroica, in what promises to be a transcendent performance of one of Beethoven’s most powerful symphonies.
American cellist Alisa Weilerstein will be making her Sydney Symphony debut playing one of her favourite works, the ‘symphony-like’ cello concerto by Prokofiev. It begins in the world of his Romeo and Juliet ballet and tempers its virtuosic energy with dreamlike lyricism and swelling melodies – breathtaking.
Beethoven’s Eroica is a celebration of greatness, the hero. It’s Tchaikovsky, beginning the concert with a tiny symphonic ballad, who introduces the antihero in a morbid tale of jealousy and revenge gone amiss.
TCHAIKOVSKY The Voyevoda – Symphonic ballad, Op.78
PROKOFIEV Symphony-Concerto for cello and orchestra
BEETHOVEN Symphony No.3, Eroica
OsmoVänskä conductor
Alisa Weilerstein cello
Pre-concert talk by Yvonne Frindle in the Northern Foyer at 7.15pm.
AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – TCHAIKOVSKY The Voyevoda: central section
Russian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Pletnev
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 477 8699
Track 2 – BEETHOVEN Symphony No.3 (Eroica) : 1st movement (opening)
Track 3 – BEETHOVEN Symphony No.3 (Eroica): 2nd movement (funeral march)
Track 4 – BEETHOVEN Symphony No.3 (Eroica): 4th movement (opening)
Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Herbert von Karajan
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON ELOQUENCE 429 0372
Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.