After a great performance of an orchestral work by Richard Strauss, it’s possible to think that THIS is why the symphony orchestra was invented – to perform music of gorgeous aural splendour requiring heroic feats of virtuosity. Strauss casts his depiction of the heroic life – including vivid musical depictions of the hero’s battles – in a vast single-movement span, for an orchestra of suitably superhuman dimensions. And it’s hard to imagine a more heroic enterprise for ANAM musicians than this performance partnership with the mighty Melbourne Symphony Orchestra under chief conductor Jaime Martin.
The concert opens with music by a composer who led a truly heroic life. Dame Ethel Smyth was the daughter of one general and sister of another; she led battles for women’s suffrage and fought equally hard to get her music performed. Her 1906 opera The Wreckers, about a community of Cornish plunderers who lure ships onto the rocks to loot their cargo, was her most successful work – and has a brilliant, often rollicking overture.
Ethyl SMYTH Overture from The Wreckers
Claude DEBUSSY La Mer
Interval
Richard STRAUSS Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life)
Jaime Martín Chief Conductor
ANAM Musicians
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Presented by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra with musicians from ANAM
These performances are part of ANAM and MSO’s Orchestral Training Partnership