Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Event Details

SHAO-CHIA LÜ, conductor
YUJA WANG, piano
BRETT DEAN, artist-in-residence

BRETT DEAN: From Melodious Lay (A Hamlet Diffraction for Soprano, Tenor and Orchestra)
BÉLA BARTÓK: Piano Concerto, No. 1
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 5, Op. 47, D minor

Each of the three works on this program reveals a composer of startling originality. First off is a new work by the NSO’s composer-in-residence this season, Brett Dean. Dean’s career has taken him from his homeland in Australia to violist in the Berlin Philharmonic to full-time composer with an international reputation. His From Melodious Lay is scheduled for its world premiere in London in November 2016, and Taiwanese audiences will hear it just two months later, as the NSO is one of four commission partners. Bartók’s First Piano Concerto has been described as “a composition that speaks with compelling urgency and in his own unmistakably pungent voice.” (Michael Steinberg). The sensational Chinese pianist Yuja Wang stars in this brilliantly virtuosic showpiece. Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony – almost as popular as Beethoven’s Fifth! – is remarkable in that the composer managed to please both hardline Soviet officials demanding music for the masses and those who believed the composer was pursuing only the highest artistic ideals

Featured non-Australian music: Bartok, Beethoven

Further information for this event is available online at the event's website

Featured Australian Works

Featured artists

• Performer National Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan
• Conductor Shao-Chia Lü