Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Event Details

In Ludwig van Beethoven’s day, the flute was the instrument par excellence of the gentleman amateur. His Serenade — here featuring Artist in Focus Emma Sholl — was written primarily for this profitable market and to help his friend Giovanni Cappi, a newly established publisher. At first glance a cheerful, witty and Haydn-esque divertimento, the work betrays Beethoven’s innovative approach to instrumentation: the flute mimics a French Horn fanfare while the bass is given, unusually, to the viola.

Meanwhile, swirling violin lines float above the mesmeric sonority of the harp in Camille Saint-Saëns’ free-flowing fantaisie, composed on the Italian Riviera. Imbued with Mediterranean flavour, it’s beautifully crafted, elegant, silky and atmospheric, an inventive bravura for both players.

A hundred years after Beethoven, Claude Debussy makes equally bold instrumental choices in this sonata and recalls the Eastern harmonies that shaped earlier orchestral works like La mer. It’s also possible the composer was influenced by performances of the shakuhachi and koto at the 1889 Paris Exhibition, Japanese instruments of timbral similarity to the flute and the zither, respectively. It’s a beguiling work; Debussy said, ‘I don’t know whether one should laugh or cry. Perhaps both at the same time?’

Emma Sholl Flute
CSO Chamber Ensemble
Kirsten Williams Violin
Tor Frømyhr Viola
Rowan Phemister Harp

Ludwig van Beethoven
Serenade for Flute, Violin and Viola, op. 25

Camille Saint-Saëns
Fantaisie for Violin and Harp, op. 124

Stuart Greenbaum
The Way Through
World premiere, new CSO commission

Claude Debussy
Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp

Featured non-Australian music: Beethoven, Saint-Saëns, Debussy

Further information for this event is available online at the event's website or by phone on (02) 6247 9191 or by email to tickets@cso.org.au

Featured Australian Works

Featured artists

• Performer Emma Sholl
• Performer CSO Chamber Players