Established and designed by the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra’s founding artistic director and world-renowned educator Richard Gill, the Voyage of Musical Discovery is three separate events – in February, May and August 2021 – beginning at 6.30pm and finishing at 8.00pm on a weekday in Sydney.
Each program is equal parts concert and demonstration. The co-artistic directors, Rachael Beesley and Nicole van Bruggen present each Voyage with musicians of the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra in the first half, and a contemporary guest artist or ensemble is featured in the second half.
By placing contemporary Australian music alongside earlier Classical and Romantic works, listeners are shown the many compositional links and similarities in structure, tonality, rhythmic function, orchestration and modes of expression.
MOTIVIC DEVELOPMENT
Wednesday 17 February, 6.30pm
City Recital Hall, Sydney
Presented by Rachael Beesley
& Nicole van Bruggen
Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra
MAX BRUCH | Serenade for Strings after Swedish Melodies (1916)
Nick Russoniello
NICK RUSSONIELLO | Suite for Saxophones and Loop Station (2018)
Max Bruch’s Serenade for Strings takes tunes and themes from Swedish folk music and develops them into a sweeping orchestral work. With the musicians of the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra, co-artistic directors Rachael Beesley and Nicole van Bruggen guide listeners through Bruch’s compositional methods and explore how he develops motifs in this seldom-heard gem from a composer known for borrowing tunes from other countries.
Photo credit: Jacquie Manning
Suite for Saxophones and Loop Station is a tour de force of real-time composition. Hear award-winning saxophonist Nick Russoniello create a groove-based work by layering and developing musical elements as diverse as beatbox, reggae and minimalism. Russoniello is a polyphonic one-man-band, imaginatively extending the sonic capabilities of the saxophone in live performance.
Nicholas Russoniello is a D’Addario Artist
VOICES & INSTRUMENTS
Tuesday 4 May, 6.30pm
City Recital Hall, Sydney
Presented by Neal Peres Da Costa
Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra
FRANZ BERWALD | Grand Septet in B-flat major (1828)
Sydney Chamber Choir
BRENDA GIFFORD | Mother Earth / Minga Bagan (2020)
ELLA MACENS | Stāvi Stīvi, Ozoliņ (2019)
CLARE MACLEAN | A West Irish Ballad (1988)
PAUL STANHOPE | Agnus Dei: (Do not stand at my grave and weep) (2016)
Voices & Instruments explores how orchestras and choirs blend sounds and tones into a cohesive whole. The Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra’s expert chamber musicians introduce the collaborative interplay of instruments – and their roles and personalities – in Franz Berwald’s Grand Septet, a delightful piece that beautifully balances winds and strings.
Photo credit: Pedro Greig
Sydney Chamber Choir regularly commissions and premieres works by established and emerging Australian composers to support and celebrate the high-quality music being created here and now. They explain and present a varied selection of Australian choral works and highlight some of the many original ways that composers turn voices into instruments, and instruments into voices.
TEXTURE & TIMBRE
Thursday 5 August, 6.30pm
City Recital Hall, Sydney
Presented by Rachael Beesley
& Nicole van Bruggen
Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra
HAYDN | Symphony No.103 in E-flat major ‘Drum Roll’ (1795)
Taikoz
KERRYN JOYCE and RYUJI HAMADA | Flowing Water (2019)
IAN CLEWORTH | ... like a ripple… (2012)
Haydn wrote his second-last symphony during his time in London where he had access to a much larger orchestra, inspiring him to create new textures and timbres which highlight the sounds of the winds, brass and, particularly in this work, the timpani. The Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra examines these various sounds and styles with gut strings and Classical timpani in this work, praised as “fertile and enchanting” after its premiere in London in 1795.
Photo credit: Karen Steains