Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Event Details

Cheney’s The Pool and the Star, originally written for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers’ Program in 2013, is premiered in the Symphony Orchestra version as commissioned by the ADO in 2016.  The piece is inspired by a poem of the same name by the late Australian poet, Judith Wright.  Following the narrative of the poem in which the pool, in love, each night awaits patiently for the rising of a star to bring to life the time and waters from which the pool gathers itself together, Cheney’s music depicts earth and water on one hand, and on the other, sky and space.

The interlude to the concert is The Walk To The Paradise Garden from ‘A Village Romeo and Juliet’ opera by Delius. In this version, Principal Conductor, Kevin Purcell has restored the composer’s original orchestration ideas as were adapted in a famous arrangement by Sir Thomas Beecham.

The concert concludes with the 1930 Symphony No. 2 op. 30 ‘Romantic’ by Howard Hanson.  Commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky for the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 50th Anniversary in 1931, the work represents a seminal moment in the development of the sound of American film music exemplified in scores from the 1930s onwards.  The symphony is unashamedly a work intended as ‘anti-modern’ evoking landscapes reminiscent of Grieg’s incidental music from Peer Gynt, whipped up in Sibelian ‘tempest’ like whirls, and reminiscent of his nordic heritage and the unique landscapes of earth, water and sky unique to that part of the Northern Hemisphere.

Program:

Lisa Cheney - The Pool and The Star (version for full orchestra)
Howard Hanson - Symphony no. 2 "The Romantic"
Delius - Walk to the Paradise Gardens

Featured non-Australian music: Howard Hanson, Delius

Further information for this event is available online at the event's website or by email to janine@quillandquaverassociates.com

Featured Australian Works

Featured artists

• Performer Australian Discovery Orchestra