Archived event
Featuring
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Elena Schwarz conductor
Clara-Jumi Kang violin
Program
Natalie Williams Fourth Alarm
Martinů Symphony No.1
Brahms Violin Concerto
About this performance
What do a bugle, a bell tower, and a child prodigy violinist have in common? Find out as the MSO explores a series of star-crossed summons and signals under the baton of Swiss-Australian conductor Elena Schwarz – formerly a prestigious Dudamel Fellow at the LA Philharmonic.
- Australian composer Natalie Williams’ music has been performed by the likes of the MSO, Atlanta Opera, Berkeley Symphony, and Musica Viva. Fourth Alarm (2013) expands a short Australian Army bugle call into a vivid work for orchestra – at once an expressive call to arms and a pressing, rhythmic warning of danger.
- Destined for a musical life after being born in a Bohemian bell tower, Martinů’s magical First Symphony traverses passages of bombastic character and mysterious quietness building to an explosion of orchestral colour.
- The enduring success of Brahms’s knockout Violin Concerto was in no small way influenced by a fated musical encounter with violinist Joseph Joachim when Brahms was only fourteen. Years later, they became friends, and this concerto was written especially for Joachim, who had a significant hand in its composition. International powerhouse violinist Clara-Jumi Kang puts her distinctive musical stamp on this astonishing work.
Duration: approx. 2 hours including interval
East meets West is supported by the Li Family Trust
