What better way to celebrate WASO’s 90th anniversary year than with Beethoven’s majestic Ninth Symphony! This is music of life-affirming exaltation, a glorious celebration of universal brotherhood.
The first concert in West Australian Symphony Orchestra’s Classics Series puts Beethoven front and centre in an enthralling program that also includes Zur Namensfeier: Overture and Fantasia for Piano, Chorus, and Orchestra: Choral Fantasy from the master composer.
The evening’s performance commences with Zur Namensfeier: Overture which was completed in 1815. Its inclusion in the program is poignant as the theme at the beginning of the piece relates to the one eventually used by Beethoven to set German writer Friedrich Schiller’s famous poem Ode to Joy in his Ninth Symphony.
Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy is a dazzling piano solo, a concerto and a large-scale choral work all in one! Asher Fisch is both soloist and conductor in this unique work of grandeur and lyricism, in which Beethoven foreshadows his own Ninth symphony and its iconic Ode to Joy finale.
There are few accolades that have not been showered upon Symphony No. 9 Choral: it is one of the most recognised and widely-performed works in the classical repertoire and is generally accepted as one of Beethoven’s greatest compositions. It is also numbered among mankind’s greatest achievements – the original handwritten manuscript was the first musical score to be included in the United Nations Memory of the World Program Heritage list in 2001.
Joining the WASO and the WASO Chorus on stage will be soprano Rachelle Durkin and mezzo-soprano Fiona Campbell, both of whom are well-known to Western Australian audiences. Tenor Henry Choo and bass David Parkin will make their WASO debuts in this concert which will delight and reward both Beethoven aficionados as well as audience members perhaps making their own WASO debuts. This performance will also feature the WASO Chorus.
Conductor: Asher Fisch Featuring: Rachelle Durkin, Fiona Campbell, Henry Choo, David Parkin, WASO Chorus
Ode to Joy: Asher Fisch Conducts Beethoven 9
Perth Concert Hall,
Performances: 15 – 17 March 2018
Information and Bookings: www.waso.com.au
Image: Asher Fisch (supplied)