The Canberra Symphony Orchestra has unveiled a program of big works for 2024 - and what you might call big small works.
It's gone for the blockbusters like Beethoven's Choral Symphony and Handel's Messiah but also for intimate chamber works which nevertheless are grand and spacious (like a Haydn string quartet next May).
Artistic director Jessica Cottis has mixed well-known works with new commissions by Australian composers. She has not picked the overplayed sugary lollipops but she has chosen popular but interesting pieces like Mozart's 21st piano concerto and his second horn concerto.
But the hummable tunes are mixed with a raft of modern works by Australian composers (which may, of course, become hummable once audiences get to know them).
The 2024 season runs from Sunday, February 18 (Beethoven Septet) through to Thursday, November 14 (Dvorak's gorgeous Serenade for Strings, the Mozart horn concerto, a Haydn symphony and, finally, a CSO commission).
The commissioned composer, Christopher Sainsbury, is an associate professor at the ANU. His university biography says: "Sainsbury is a member of the Dharug nation (the Indigenous people of Sydney).
"He explores ways to sound his Australian Indigenous heritage, and draws upon sounds from his 'aural homelands' of Sydney and the Central Coast, referencing these in his music. This dovetails in well with his research focus on regional and community music."
The program for the 2024 season (titled Earth and Sky) was launched at the ANU Music School to an audience of supporters, including the Governor-General and his wife.
Chief executive Rachel Thomas said it was the first live launch in four years because of the pandemic lockdowns.
"We're thrilled to unveil Earth and Sky, an exciting program of CSO orchestral concerts, chamber music matinees and evenings dedicated to Australian voices and stories," she said.
The Earth and Sky theme is mirrored in many of the works, from The Lark Ascending (where the solo violin becomes the bird soaring high into a blue sky) to the ever popular Vivaldi's Four Seasons.
And there'll be an arrangement for brass quintet of Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen's classic.
Governor-General David Hurley was effusive in his praise for the orchestra. He clearly loves music. "It does enrich our soul. It does enrich our spirit," he said.
Stars of the launch, though, were the Copaceanu sisters Kaytlin (11 and violin) and Sienna (9 and cello). They played an arrangement of Bizet's Carmen with complete confidence and a lot of style.
