Archived event
Performance details
Thursday 3 October 2024 at 7.30pm
Saturday 5 October 2024 at 7.30pm
Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall
Featuring
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Benjamin Northey conductor^
Steven Isserlis cello
^Nodoka Okisawa is unable to conduct this program as originally scheduled.
Program
Akutagawa Triptyque for String Orchestra
Shostakovich Cello Concerto No.1
Prokofiev Symphony No.7
Naomi Dodd* RUN**
*Cybec Young Composer in Residence
**World premiere of an MSO Commission
About this performance
Legendary English cellist Steven Isserlis returns to Melbourne for this exhilarating program conducted by Benjamin Northey, anchored by Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto and Prokoviev’s shimmering final symphony.
- Composer Yasushi Akutagawa was so enamoured with Russian music that he entered the Soviet Union illegally in 1954, where he established friendships with Shostakovich, Khachaturian and Kabalevsky, among others. This fantastic Triptyque (1953) for string orchestra fuses the punchiness of the Russian musical tradition with the folk sounds of his native Japan.
- Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto was written in 1959 for his friend, the legendary cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. The latter was so taken with it, that he learned it by heart in just four days.
- Completed the year before his death in 1953, Prokofiev’s seventh and final symphony showcases his mastery of the orchestra, its apparent simplicity masking deep musical and emotional complexity.
- Emerging Australian composer Naomi Dodd is known for her emotional, passion-filled works. Her new work RUN, commissioned as part of the Cybec Young Composers' Program, is inspired by electronic dance music, with a driving pulse, energetic cross-rhythms and even a bass drop!
Duration: approx. 1 hour and 45 minutes including interval
Featured artists
The Cybec Foundation generously provides support for Naomi Dodd's position as Cybec Young Composer in Residence.
