Australian Chamber Orchestra
The Queen’s Hall series opens in style with one of the world’s most celebrated chamber ensembles, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, famed for its vivid, dramatic performances in which every note tells a story, under charismatic Director Richard Tognetti.
The ACO present a powerfully Romantic programme. The Siegfried Idyll is Wagner at his most intimate, a touching piece written as a birthday present for his wife, tender, lilting and astonishingly beautiful.
Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, by contrast, is a cycle of songs both celebrating the pleasures of life and staring with unflinching honesty at the inevitability of death – a spiritual sung symphony on the joys of drinking, the beauty of nature, and the soul’s release. Arnold Schoenberg created a chamber version of Das Lied in 1920 that magnifies the piece’s emotional resonance. For it, the ACO is joined by two exceptional singers: respected British mezzo soprano Alice Coote, and the renowned Australian heldentenor Stuart Skelton.
This concert will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Friday 12 Aug.
If there's a better chamber orchestra in the world today, I haven't heard it.
The Guardian
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Australian Chamber Orchestra
Richard Tognetti Director / Violin
Alice Coote Mezzo soprano
Stuart Skelton Tenor
Wagner Siegfried Idyll
Mahler (arr. Schoenberg) Das Lied von der Erde
More information about some of the artists
Australian Chamber Orchestra
Website
Richard Tognetti
Website
Alice Coote
Website
Stuart Skelton
Website