CSO Artist in Residence Diana Doherty will lead the orchestra. Photo: Christie Brewster.
The oboe will be the centrepiece of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra’s spring matinee performance at Llewellyn Hall on Saturday (14 September), with Diana Doherty leading the musicians in a program that celebrates the instrument she has made her own.
The scaled back chamber size orchestra of strings, oboe and horns will deliver three oboe concertos by Bach, Mozart and Vaughan Williams, as well as Mozart’s Symphony No 25.
Part of Doherty’s tenure as the CSO’s Artist in Residence, the concert will allow Doherty to give her take on some well-loved pieces, and she promises it will be a new musical experience for the orchestra and audience.
“You can’t avoid that, there’s always something fresh with a group, even playing the same piece with different people, it happens organically,” she says. “You’re creating something at that moment with those performers and with that audience and in that hall at that moment.”
But she does hope to bring a stylistic difference to the works and create something unique.
“I hope we can try to make some slightly different use of vibrato, and sound and flexibility,” Doherty says.
“The purpose of this is absolutely to give a fantastic concert, but also for us to grow as artists, to develop skills further and for the growth of the orchestra.
“It’s not just about throwing it together for one day but creating something, building towards something in the future as well.”
Doherty says the Symphony will provide a dramatic opening before embarking on a little history of the oboe and finishing with the ‘happy, bouncy’ Mozart concerto.
She says the two Mozarts have an incredible freshness, that reflect the prodigy’s youth.
“He never lived to be old. You really feel his youth and his optimism, the sunny disposition,” she says.
“It’s very import to think freshly, it’s a piece we play so many times, so you’re always looking for some little breath of fresh air to bring to it.
“As a performer you want to be open to that and let that carry you along and feel like it’s the very first time you’ve ever played that piece.”
Supporting her will be guest concertmaster Rachel Beesley, with whom she has worked before, recording Bach.
“Rachel is very experienced with early music performance and playing without a conductor which is really helpful to me,” Doherty says.
The day before the concert, Doherty and Beesley will conduct free masterclasses at the ANU School of Music, open to the public.
Doherty joked that she will be leaving the baton at home but the “oboe is a big stick anyway so that should do the trick”.
CLASSIC AFTERNOON
2 pm, Saturday 14 September, 2019
Llewellyn Hall
Tickets $29 to $95
Diana Doherty Soloist, Director
2019 Artist in Focus
MOZART Symphony No. 25 in G minor, K. 183
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Oboe Concerto in A minor
BACH Oboe Concerto in D minor
MOZART Oboe Concerto in C major, K. 314
MASTERCLASSES
Diana Doherty and Rachel Beesley
Friday 13 September, 2019
ANU School of Music
Free entry, open to the public
Diana Doherty 3 pm – 6 pm
Big Band Room
Rachel Beesley 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Larry Sitsky Recital Room
For more information visit www.cso.org.au
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