Category: Sergei Prokofiev

Sydney Symphony Orchestra presents, YOUNG RUSSIANS – Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich, in the Concert Hall, at the Sydney Opera House. 1st, 3rd and 4th March. YOUNG RUSSIANS was a program of music from three of the greats of music of the last century. Music from the three greats, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich right at the beginning of their career. All three pieces are auguries of their coming contribution to world music. Sergei Prokofiev wrote his CLASSICAL SYMPHONY. OP 25 (SYMPHONY No. 1 in D) in the summer of 1917, at the age of 26, right at the beginning of the…

Opera Australia presents THE LOVE FOR THREE ORANGES, An opera in four acts and a prologue by Sergei Prokofiev. Libretto by the composer, for Vsevolod Meyerhold’s adaptation of a play by Carlo Gozzi. In the Joan Sutherland Theatre at the Sydney Opera House,  June 22 – July 9, 2016. THE LOVE FOR THREE ORANGES by Sergei Prokofiev, is in a revival season for Opera Australia (OA). This absolutely delightful production by Francesca Zambello premiered in 2005. I saw it then as well. Then, I remember, it was a shock, and a dazzling but confusing experience. Now, under the Revival Direction…

Sydney Symphony Orchestra presents, JAZZ INSPIRATIONS: Thibaudet plays Gershwin in the Convert Hall at the Sydney Opera House. Wanting some music in my life, again, and reading publicity around the pianist, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and enamoured with the composers Dmitri Shotsakovich and Sergei Prokofiev, and curious about the classic symphonic work of George Gershwin, who I know mostly as a popular song maker of the ‘twenties and ‘thirties of the last century – I went to this concert at the Sydney Opera House. I have a conscious appreciation of my being a kind of Russophile, (dangerously imperilled by present history –…

  Australian Chamber Orchestra presents Tour Seven: RUSSIAN VISIONS in the Concert Hall at the Sydney Opera House. Can I say that, for me, almost every time I leave a concert given by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, I feel as if I have been especially privileged. I go tirelessly to the theatre (Drama) to have an experience of transcending excellence. It rarely happens. Maybe, because it is the field in which I have toiled, and that I am too knowing, too demanding, whereas, in the world of music making, I am simply an audience, and, so find so much to…

Australian Chamber Orchestra present: Tour One – TEDDY TAHU RHODES at the Sydney Opera House. Songs with and without words. The Mahler Adagietto (from Symphony No.5.) (1902), familiar to those of us who remember the Visconti film DEATH IN VENICE was our first offering in this concert. It is a beautiful and melancholic experience. Whether it was written as a wordless love declaration by Gustav Mahler to his future wife, or is related more to the sombre setting of a Ruckert poem, “Ich bin der Welt abhanden recommend” (1901): I have lost touch with the world where I once wasted…