ACO OPENS 2018 WITH TOGNETTI, TCHAIKOVSKY & BRAHMS

Image above: ACO will begin 2018 with Missy Mazzoli’s world premiere work Dark with Excessive Bright.
Banner image: Australian Chamber Orchestra (photo: Nic Walker)

The Australian Chamber Orchestra are renowned the world over for their adventurous and distinctive programming, that sees re-imagined interpretations of celebrated classics stacked alongside performances of ambitious new commissions.  They begin 2018 with Three Soloists, Two Premieres and a Collaboration with the Australian National Academy of Music.

In their first national tour for 2018, Artistic Director Richard Tognetti will lead the ACO in a program that continues this exploration of the old and new, through partnering two 19th century greats, Brahms and Tchaikovsky, with the restless energy and ambition of two of today’s strongest musical voices for the world premiere of Brooklyn-based composer Missy Mazzoli’s Dark with Excessive Bright and the Australian premiere of UK/US composer Anna Clyne’s Prince of Clouds.

ACO Principal Bass Maxime Bibeau will give the world premiere performance of Mazzoli’s new double bass concerto, Dark with Excessive Bright, commissioned in celebration of his 20 years with the ACO. Brooklyn-based composer Mazzoli described the concerto as being heavily influenced by Bibeau, as well as the instrument he plays, a late-16th century Gasparo da Salò double bass kindly made available to him by Anonymous Australian benefactors.

The concert will also shine the spotlight on two of the ACO’s newest young stars. Violinists Ike See and Glenn Christensen who will together perform the Australian premiere of Clyne’s Grammy Award-nominated double violin concerto, Prince of Clouds. Described in a profile by the New York Times as “a composer of uncommon gifts and unusual methods”, Clyne is one of the most innovative and cutting-edge composers writing today. Her double concerto received its world premiere in 2012 and received universal praise from critics, with the New York Times describing the work as ‘ravishing’.

This new music from Mazzoli and Clyne will be paired with two of the most beloved pieces of music written for strings: Tchaikovsky’s soaring Serenade for Strings and Brahms’ Sextet No.2 in G major. The ACO will perform an inspired new arrangement of Brahms’ Sextet No.2 that is so rich, melodic and emotively powerful that Tognetti has dubbed it Brahms’ ‘Fifth Symphony’.

The ACO will be touring to Wollongong, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane,  1-16 February 2018.

For more information about the Australian Chamber Orchestra visit:

https://www.aco.com.au/