Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Event Details

The Sidney Myer Free Concerts are the perfect soundtrack to summer in the city at one of Melbourne’s most iconic outdoor venues. Admission is free and gates open at 4.30pm, entry is on a first in, best dressed basis.

A heady mix of sharp edged melodies and distinctive beats from Prokofiev, Kats-Chernin and Rachmaninov will echo across Melbourne’s CBD skyline, in the second concert of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Sidney Myer Free Concert series.

As a true enfant terrible, Russian composer, Sergei Prokofiev was never shy of coming forward, with his ballet, Romeo and Juliet becoming an international showpiece, made famous by its violent and stormy depiction of the star-cross’d lovers’ tale. MSO Associate Conductor, Benjamin Northey takes the Orchestra through excerpts of this epic work.

Inspired by ‘kitsch’ tourist souvenirs of Gustav Klimt’s famously golden artworks, MSO’s 2017 Composer in Residence, Elena Kats-Chernin ‘unleashes the full power of her magic-realist vision’ (Canberra Times) in Golden Kitsch. Originally commissioned by Sydney Youth Orchestra in 2009 for the ‘sorceress of percussion’, the award-winning percussionist Claire Edwardes returns for another rendition, before the Orchestra takes flight in Symphonic Dances, demonstrating modernist rhythmic elements and big tunes in Rachmaninov’s final three-movement compositional effort.

The MSO is delighted to welcome Elena Kats-Chernin, one of Australia’s leading composers, as its 2017 Composer in Residence.

Program

Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet: excerpts
Kats-Chernin Golden Kitsch
Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances

Running time: 1 hour and 40 minutes, including a 20-minute interval

Featured non-Australian music: Prokofiev, Rachmaninov

Further information for this event is available online at the event's website or by phone on (03) 9929 9600

Featured Australian Works

Golden kitsch : Percussion concerto (2009) by Elena Kats-Chernin — performed by Benjamin Northey, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Claire Edwardes

Featured artists

• Performer Claire Edwardes
• Performer Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor Benjamin Northey