SYDNEY SYMPHONY 2014
Making great music and truly memorable experiences Discovery, Meet the Music, Tea & Symphony, Metro, Thursday Afternoon Symphony, Great Classics, and Mondays@7. The Master Series is the orchestra’s flagship series in which audiences will experience not only great master composers such as Beethoven (Symphony No 7, along with the last three piano concertos), Richard Strauss (Four Last Songs), Elgar (Enigma Variations), Mendelssohn (Elijah), Mahler (Seventh Symphony), Poulenc (Organ Concerto), Sibelius (Violin Concerto), Stravinsky (Symphony in 3 Movements), Prokofiev (Alexander Nevsky), but also the finest of soloists: soprano Christine Brewer, pianists Emanuel Ax and Stephen Hough, and violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann.
Stephen Hough
2014 sees David Robertson takes over the reins as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director. Whilst Sydney audiences have already taken to the charming, intelligent and incredibly gifted conductor, it will be the new year which bears Robertson’s own stamp. In the eleven different series of concerts (totalling close to a hundred concerts), there are world premieres of newly commissioned works, international pianists, world stars of the concert platform, film music, operatic concerts and tried and true works, given fresh airings. With planning for 2014 starting eighteen months earlier with Robertson, Chief Executive Rory Jeffes and Peter Czornyj (Director of Artistic Planning) and a vast team behind the scenes, the series has come together as a wondrous jigsaw, combining international flights, artist accommodation and publicity. Such a mammoth effort sees a thriving organisation come alive with high calibre music making for the 100-plus person orchestra. Robertson promises to “make great music
and create truly memorable experiences”, and readily admits that the orchestra can build on the golden age experienced under Vladimir Ashkenazy. Sitting down with Rory Jeffes in the Sydney Symphony’s executive suite, he acknowledges the greatness of the Ashkenazy era. “The SSO with Ashkenazy has been a real game changer. What is very exciting for me is that the period with Ashkenazy has seen the orchestra in a period of growth. There is a desire to develop further, to believe that we can be, and sit alongside, any orchestra in the world. Ashkenazy has brought that to the orchestra. There’s a huge belief that it’s a journey worth taking,” Jeffes said. Along with Czornyj, he outlined the forward thinking that goes into devising a full year’s series of concerts, which hopefully will excite audiences, both old and new.
Robertson… the universal “choice to succeed Ashkenazy
“
The release of a new year of concert programs can seem like unwrapping a giant Christmas present. Filled with expectation and the impending surprises of a long awaited gift, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra will burst forth in 2014 with surprise on top of surprise.
Key to this forward momentum is Robertson, whom they agreed “was the universal choice of the musicians to succeed Ashkenazy”. The diverse 2014 offerings come under the names of Master Series, Mozart in the City, Kaleidoscope, International Pianists in Recital,
Friday evenings sees the Emirates Metro Series present Schubert’s Symphony No 9 (the Great C Major), Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 3 with soloist Lukas Vondracek, Beethoven Piano Concertos, Shostakovich and Dvoˇrák Cello Concertos, Brahms’ Symphonies Nos 3 and 4, Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, and Mahler’s Symphony No 1. Kaleidoscope is an innovative new direction of which Sydney audiences have had a taste already with successful concerts featuring the music of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The four concert series in 2014 puts on centre stage the music of John Williams (E.T., Superman, Empire of the Son, Jaws, Star Wars, Schindler’s List), Baz Luhrmann (The Great Gatsby, Moulin Rouge, Strictly Ballroom), The Matrix, and Bernstein’s West Side Story (complete with movie projection). Richard Gill OAM, one of Australia’s most passionate and entertaining conductors/ educators will unpack a complete symphonic work (one each by Mozart, Brahms, Elgar, and Shostakovich) in each of the four Discovery concerts. Whether you are a seasoned concertgoer, or a complete novice, these concerts are a perfect way to come to grips with such music in an informative and entertaining style. Another fantastic way to embark on an orchestral journey is via the Meet the Music - four early Wednesday evening concerts in which mainstream pieces such as Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Sibelius’ Third Symphony and Vaughan Williams’ Oboe Concerto sit alongside newer works. Aimed at a wide audience, including secondary school September 2013
fineMusic 102.5
3