80 Symphonic Years In Sydney
In 2012 Sydney’s international orchestra celebrates its 80th anniversary. Peter Kurti previews the exciting line-up of local and international guest artists with Sydney Symphony’s director of artistic planning Peter Czornyj.
Peter Czornyj beams with excitement. 2012 is going to be a big year for the Sydney Symphony. Working alongside Vladimir Ashkenazy, the orchestra’s principal conductor and artistic advisor who is about to begin his fourth year with the Sydney Symphony, Peter Czornyj has created a dazzling season for a special year.
This is the third complete season Peter Czornyj has planned since joining the Sydney Symphony as director of artistic planning in 2008. With a background in musicology, conducting and composition, and considerable experience in music administration and recording, he has an extensive knowledge of the repertoire.
2012 marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Sydney Symphony in 1932. It was the same year that the Sydney Harbour Bridge opened and also the founding year of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
In this commemorative year the Sydney Symphony will be reflecting on its history and celebrating its many substantial achievements.
The season opens in February with the mighty Ninth Symphony by Beethoven and draws to a close ten months later with some of the greatest music Tchaikovsky ever wrote – two gala concerts of his Queen of Spades opera featuring the Australian tenor, Stuart Skelton.
During the year the orchestra will be joined by a stellar line-up of some of the world’s finest classical musicians, among them conductors David Zinman, David Robertson, Tugan Sokhiev and Hugh Wolff, and soloists such as violinists Lisa Batiashvili and Anthony Marwood, pianists Garrick Ohlsson and Angela Hewitt, and cellist Jian Wang.
In addition, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter will make her Australian debut with two performances of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto under the baton of Vladimir Ashkenazy. These special performances are presented in conjunction with the orchestra’s premier partner, Credit Suisse.
In March the orchestra will commemorate Igor Stravinsky’s historic 1961 visit to Australia with concerts featuring Matthias Pintscher conducting Stravinsky’s The Firebird: Suite and his Violin Concerto with soloist Isabelle Faust. In August, conductor Simone Young, soprano Christine Brewer and the orchestra will re-create the all-Wagner 1973 season opening concert of the Sydney Opera House.
Aaron Copland’s visit to Sydney in 1978, when he conducted his Symphony no 3, will be celebrated in September when the orchestra performs the same work under the baton of Robert Spano.
But Peter Czornyj is quite clear that the 80th anniversary season is not only about reflecting on the landmarks in earlier years. ‘We are certainly celebrating the Sydney Symphony’s many achievements,’ he says, ‘but we are also continuing to look to the future of fine music-making, as the Sydney Symphony has always done.’
And the new season will live up to Peter Czornyj’s promise. In 2012 the orchestra will continue to demonstrate its commitment to new music with premieres of three commissioned works by notable Australian composers.
Ross Edwards has written a saxophone concerto for the brilliant young saxophonist, Amy Dickson; Carl Vine’s Piano Concerto no 2, written for Piers Lane, will be performed by Lane himself in August; and Barry Conyngham’s Symphony will receive its premiere performance in November under the baton of Richard Gill, to whom the work is dedicated.
There will also be music from a new composer. In March Vladimir Ashkenazy will conduct the orchestra in the premiere performance of a new work – one which will have taken out the first prize in a competition open to all Australian composers who have never before had a work performed by the Sydney Symphony in the Sydney Opera House. The winning work will be announced early in the new season. ‘We’re looking forward to receiving some very exciting new works,’ says Peter Czornyj.
Young performers will also be coming to the platform with the Sydney Symphony in 2012, many making their first Concert Hall appearances with the orchestra.
Look out for the pianist, Behzod Abduraimov, winner of the 2009 London International Piano Competition; and for another pianist, Oliver She, who won the Symphony Australia/ABC Young Performers Award in 2010; as well as for another Young Performers Award prize winner, saxophonist Amy Dickson.
At the other end of the spectrum is the Sydney Symphony’s eclectic ‘Kaleidoscope’ series, which in 2012 includes performances by acclaimed American jazz trumpeter Chris Botti, a Gershwin tribute with pianist–conductor Bramwell Tovey, the sensational Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and that Sydney premiere of the new Ross Edwards saxophone concerto, paired with Ravel’s Bolero.
‘And as a special bonus,’ says Peter Czornyj, ‘we will be screening Part II of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy – The Two Towers – in July 2012, complete with music by Howard Shore, performed live on stage.’
The 2012 80th anniversary season is going to be an extraordinary period in the life our city’s great orchestra. Vladimir Ashkenazy will be in Sydney four times during the year: he will open the season in February, close it in November, conduct the premiere performance of the prize-winning competition, and introduce Anne-Sophie Mutter to Sydney audiences.
‘We are always very excited by the many possibilities of creating stimulating concert programs in an inventive and refreshing way for Sydney audiences,’ Peter Czornyj says when asked about planning of the 2012 season. ‘It’s about trying to represent the amazing breadth of the repertoire and at the same time always keeping an open mind and listening to how our musicians and audiences respond and react to the concert experience.’
Fore more information on 2012 season visit www.sydneysymphony.com