Jessica Cottis conducts Tchaikovsky and Kats-Chernin: thrilling orchestral masterworks rich in passion and vivid imagination. Photo: Kaupo Kikkas.
To be human is to dance with mystery: the thrill of the unknown, the intrigue of a clever crime novel, or the wonder of a mystical experience. This program draws us deeper into imagination and curiosity with three enigmatic orchestral works.
In The Unanswered Question, Charles Ives tackles nothing less than what he called ‘the perennial question of existence’. The Question is posed over and over by the trumpet; an increasingly fervent flurry of woodwinds represent the Would-Be-Answerers, while the strings maintain Ives’ Silence of the Druids. Aptly subtitled ‘A Cosmic Landscape’, Ives’ greatest hit bundles up the universe and the human story into just seven minutes. Spoiler alert: the question lingers, unresolved.
Composed specifically for our Artist in Focus, Sally Walker, Night and now by Elena Kats-Chernin AO showcases the entire range of the flute. It’s a rich, lyrical work steeped in the composer’s own recollections of a childhood in Russia: from folk tales and forest picnics, to hardship and food scarcity.
The perennial question returns in Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, the ‘Pathetique’ – literally, ‘passionate’. A work of thrilling psychological drama and emotional power, Tchaikovsky’s Sixth enlists the full forces of the orchestra in a musical expression of astounding proportions. We hear it with the strange knowledge that it was the composer’s final symphony; desire, grief, life energy and every shade of light and darkness intermingle before fading into stillness, bringing us full circle.
The details
What: Night and Now
When: Wednesday 26 March & Thursday 27 March, 7:30 pm
Where: Llewellyn Hall, ANU School of Music
Cost: $16-124. Tickets available via CSO.
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