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Archived event

Performance details

Thursday 13 October 2022 at 7.30pm
Saturday 15 October 2022 at 7.30pm

Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall

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Featuring

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Nodoka Okisawa conductor
Yinuo Mu harp
Sopranos and altos of the MSO Chorus

Warren Trevelyan-Jones chorus director

Program

Ravel Valses nobles et sentimentales
Melody Eötvös Sonarmilo Concertante for Harp and Orchestra (World premiere of an MSO commission)
Takemitsu Dreamtime
Debussy Nocturnes

About this performance

Celebrated Japanese conductor Nodoka Okisawa joins the MSO to conduct a program exploring the exquisite light and shade of impressionism, dreams, and the other-worldly.

  • Inspired by the glittering ballrooms of high-society Vienna, Ravel’s impressionist take on Austrian Waltzes was originally composed as a work for solo piano. A master orchestrator, Ravel re-arranged this for the full light and shade of the orchestral palette in 1912 – the lively flirtations, gentle breezes and steamy encounters of unchaperoned Viennese nightlife come to life out of Ravel’s musical canvas.
  • Join internationally-acclaimed Yinuo Mu, principal harpist of the MSO, for this world premiere of Australian composer Melody Eötvös’s Harp Concertante – a love-letter to this versatile and beautiful stringed instrument, celebrated from ancient Greece to the modern concert hall.
  • Inspired by the notion of Dreamtime and the oral traditions of Australia’s First Nations people – though without using Dreaming concepts or content – Takemitsu’s Dreamtime brings together East and West, merging the sound worlds of traditional Japan with 20th Century European music in an evocation of images that move in and out of focus, like the abstract nature of dreams.
  • A favourite of French impressionist repertoire, Debussy’s ethereal Nocturnes take us through musical representations of wafting clouds, lively parties, and the mystery of the sirens’ songs inspired by the paintings of American artist James McNeill Whistler.

Duration: approx. 105 minutes including interval

Enhance your experience

Want to learn more about the music being performed? Arrive early for an informative and entertaining pre-concert talk with ABC Classic presenter Stéphanie Kabanyana-Kanyandekwe and composer Melody Eötvös.

Thursday 13 October at 6.45pm
Saturday 15 October at 6.45pm

Hamer Hall Stalls Foyer

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