Archived event
Performance details
Thursday 20 April 2023 at 7.30pm
Saturday 22 April 2023 at 2pm
Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall
Featuring
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Umberto Clerici conductor
Christian Li violin
Program
Sibelius Violin Concerto
Rossini William Tell: Overture
Shostakovich Symphony No.6
About this performance
MSO Young Artist in Association Christian Li joins the MSO and Queensland Symphony Orchestra Chief Conductor Umberto Clerici for a concert of thrilling works from north of the equator. Featuring Sibelius and Shostakovich – plus Rossini's galloping overture from William Tell.
- From a young age, Sibelius desperately wanted to become a violin virtuoso – an ambition he never realised despite constant hard work. This deeply personal concerto was written for the violinist he could never be, and for a version of himself he never came to know.
- Instantly recognisable and heavily quoted in pop culture, the overture to Rossini’s 1829 opera William Tell was lauded by critics at the time as a symphony in and of itself with a poetic opening, a storm, pastoral scene, and its famous galloping finale.
- Shostakovich’s relationship with the Soviet Russian state had been tumultuous for many years by the time he began his sixth symphony. He had announced an epic musical monument to Lenin with chorus and soloists, and leaning heavily on Russian folk music. When it premiered in 1939, however, the work turned out to contain none of these things – restrained and dark instead of bombastic and patriotic, with no references to Lenin – throwing him into political disfavour.
Duration: approx. 1 hour and 50 minutes including interval
East meets West is supported by the Li Family Trust and the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations
