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IN PERFORMANCE: Live Broadcast Sydney Symphony Orchestra – 8.00pm
‘This is the best of me; for the rest, I ate, and drank, and slept, loved and hated, like another: my life was as the vapour and is not; but this I saw and knew; this, if anything of mine, is worth your memory.’ – Edward Elgar, written in the score of Dream of Gerontius.
Tonight the Sydney Symphony Orchestra with conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy presents the final program of their Elgar Festival. This oratorio remains Elgar’s most popular choral work. Its dramatic and emotional intensity belies the usually dry associations of an ‘oratorio’. Rather, this marvellous work is a passionate outpouring of Elgar’s own personal convictions and is now considered a universal spiritual touchstone.
IN PERFORMANCE: Adelaide Symphony Orchestra – 8.00pm
Tchaikovsky’s much-loved Violin Concerto receives a bravura performance from young Canadian violinist James Ehnes in tonight’s concert. This performance from the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arvo Volmer, begins with Britten’s evocative Four Sea Interludes, depicting the sea from dawn, through storm, to dusk. Also on the program is Hindemith’s symphony Mathis der Maler. Based on themes from Hindemith’s opera of the same name, this work has been described in turn as ‘muscular, contemplative, vivid and radiant’.
IN PERFORMANCE: Hespèrion XXI – 8.00pm
Hespèrion XXI’s director Jordi Savall has personally curated tonight’s program, which showcases the extraordinary musicality of the group's members – Jordi, his children and three long-standing musical colleagues. Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XXI are committed to trying to bring dialogue and understanding between East and West through music, highlighting similarities and influences where they may be quite unexpected. The music, from the medieval world to the present, ranges from traditional art-music repertoire of Western Europe, through the Middle East and Eastern folk music traditions.
OPERA IN PERFORMANCE: Verdi Don Carlos – 7.05pm
In tonight’s broadcast of Verdi’s Don Carlos, Mario Malagnini sings the title role, with Roberto Rizzi Brignoli conducting the Suisse Romande Orchestra.
Don Carlos combines a searing examination of the conflict and self-destructive nature of European houses of royalty, with an ill-fated love story. Verdi made numerous cuts and revisions to the original score, in part because it was initially more than four hours long! No other Verdi opera exists in so many versions.
IN PERFORMANCE: Sydney Philharmonia – 8.00pm
Works by Australian composers Elena Kats-Chernin, Rosalind Page, Daniel Walker, and Mark Isaacs all receive their world premieres in this concert from the Sydney Philharmonia directed by Brett Weymark and Elizabeth Scott. UK composer Orlando Gough, who has a close association with dance and music for contemporary theatre and American Eric Whitacre, who was once expelled from his high school band, are also featured in this evening of choral delights.
AFTERNOONS: Bergen International Festival 2007 – 1.05pm
Witold Lutoslawski once said ‘I regard creative activity as a kind of soul-fishing, and the ‘catch’ is the best medicine for loneliness, that most human of sufferings.’ The art of composition, for him, was a search for listeners who thought and felt the same way he did. By Lutoslawski’s own admission, this philosophy would not necessarily ensure an audience for his music. Find out for yourself in this afternoon’s concert when we hear Leif Ove Andsnes perform Lutoslawski’s Piano Concerto.
Conductor Andrew Litton conducts the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in Prokofiev’s popular Symphony No.5, and to open the concert, a work by Danish composer Bent Sørensen titled Exit Music. The composer writes: ‘It began with a dream, as it always does when I compose…’ Find out where that dream took him this afternoon with Paul Bevan.
AFTERNOONS: Bernd Glemser, piano – 1.05pm
If you can only spare enough time to hear one concert this week, this is the one. Bernd Glemser enjoys the record and according reputation, of having won the most number of competitions and special prizes in a row when he was performing on the competiton circuit. He was also the youngest person ever appointed to a professorship in Germany.
This transporting program opens with Busoni’s transcription of Bach’s monumental Chaconne. Beethoven’s much-loved Moonlight Sonata receives a fresh and scintillating performance. Rachmaninov, a composer with whom Glemser feel a particular affinity, rounds out the program with Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Barcarolle in G minor and Etude tableau in D. Forget your cares and worries this afternoon with this concert from the Hobart Town Hall.
IN PERFORMANCE: Alain Planès, piano – 8.00pm
Passionate in his approach to all art forms, pianist Alain Planès delivers Beethoven, Bartok and bagatelles this afternoon for your enjoyment. Debussy’s influence is very much present in Béla Bartók’s Fourteen Bagatelles. These light-hearted and ‘trifling’ pieces caused Busoni to exclaim ‘At last something truly new!’ Beethoven’s most famous bagatelle, unpublished during his lifetime, is the piece popularly known as Für Elise. Is it included in this program? You’ll have to tune in to find out.
IN PERFORMANCE: Melbourne Symphony Orchestra – 8.00pm
Tonight’s concert from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra fills your Friday night with every colour on the chart. Debussy’s evocative La Mer draws us into the soundscapes of the sea in its many different moods, from dawn ‘til dusk. Stravinsky’s score for The Firebird was composed for Diaghilev’s ‘Ballet Russes’ in 1910, but has found much popularity on the concert hall platform. Vivid in its orchestration, the music tells the folkloric story of Prince Ivan and the Firebird, a magical glowing creature. To open the concert, the original overture to Beethoven’s only opera Fidelio; the Leonore Overture No.2.
Andre Rieu is the guest editor of the November issue of Limelight. Plus your complete Classic FM listings for the month. Visit the ABC Shop for more »
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