Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Program 1 'Legendary' at Sydney Opera House, Concert Hall

Experience the magnificent sound of the legendary RCO as they perform Tchaikovsky’s epic Fifth Symphony and the suite from Stravinsky’s magical ballet The Firebird.

WAGENAAR Overture: The Taming of the Shrew, Op.25 (1909)
STRAVINSKY The Firebird: Suite (1919)
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op.64

Mariss Jansons, conductor
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

“Astonish me!” This was the challenge that Sergei Diaghilev, the impresario of the Ballet Russes levelled at his artists. One of them, the young Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, responded with three world-changing ballets. His first, The Firebird, is a heady blend of fairytale and sophisticated musical magic painted in the vivid colours of Russian folk art. The glittering spectacle galvanised Parisian audiences and made Stravinsky an overnight star. The Firebird immediately began a life outside the theatre – all of the sorcery and splendour of the ballet is there in a score that dazzles and soars, seduces and terrifies. In the hands of the RCO and Jansons, this is indeed music to astonish.

At the core of any orchestra’s repertoire must stand the late symphonies of Pyotr Tchaikovsky. They are documents as profound as any in Russian literature, epic and richly-textured dramas that transcend words but where feelings find expression in the perfect union of melody and tone colour. In one sense Fifth Symphony is ‘about’ the juxtaposition of extremes – melancholy with bright-eyed joy, brooding stasis with unstoppable energy. In other words it’s about life, as we’re propelled by through its peaks and valleys by inescapable fate (the ‘motto’ of this symphony). This one ends happily, with a victory celebration: a happy ending, for now. Along the way, Tchaikovsky pours his heart out in ravishing song and dance, amplified by the clarity, insight and magnificent sound of the legendary RCO.

The concert opens with a nod to the music of the Netherlands, with Dutch composer Johan Wagenaar’s bustling overture to Shakespeare’s comedy, in a glitzy style reminiscent of Richard Strauss.