Melbourne Symphony Orchestra playing An Alpine Symphony
Friday, March 11 2016 at 0800pm
website for booking tickets: http://www.mso.com.au/whats-on/2016-season/alpine/
Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
Richard Strauss An Alpine Symphony
Sir Andrew Davis conductor
Ray Chen violin
MSO Chorus
Climbing any mountain can be a formidable challenge, and scaling Richard Strauss’ great tone poem, An Alpine Symphony, is as much an uphill trek for the orchestra as it was for Strauss’ inspirational band of mountaineers. First off, the score calls for around 125 players, including cowbells and offstage brass. Secondly, although the piece is in one single movement, it recounts its day-long adventure in 22 connected sections, including vivid depictions of a meadow, a glacier, the view from the summit, and a storm. Thirdly, it is just short of 60 minutes: Strauss’ peak hour. Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music (1938) presents considerable vocal challenges. Originally written for 16 star singers of the day, it is usually performed by members of a choir — in this performance, the MSO Chorus. The text, adapted by the composer from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, rhapsodises on the music of the spheres: How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! Here will we sit and let the sounds of music Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night Become the touches of sweet harmony. 2016 also marks 400 years since Shakespeare’s death. In between, Australian virtuoso Ray Chen tackles the fearsome demands of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.
Bohemian Rhapsody Club will be have this concert covered by our media crew.