Llewellyn Four: Infinite Possibilities

This program opens with a new CSO commission by Leah Curtis, a Los Angeles-based composer with Canberra roots. Curtis is best known for her original film scores and soundtracks, collaborations she describes as ‘work of the head, the heart and the gut; work of instinct, of intellect and of curiosity.’

Then, we return to the seemingly infinite imagination of Stravinsky. Petrushka narrates the escapades of three puppets, set in a traditional Shrovetide fairground. This is one of the composer’s most colourful, inventive and wide-ranging scores, steeped in the Russian folk tradition and yet suggestive of the emerging film medium in its musical ‘jump cuts’ and scene changes.

Like Stravinsky, Sibelius draws extensively on folk traditions, his Violin Concerto described by American critic Olin Downes as ‘bardic songs heard against a background of torches…in some wild Northern night.’ It’s a work of striking contrasts: hypnotic, darkened hues electrified by blinding lights. There’s something inherently organic in Sibelius: he responds with an exceptional intensity to the natural world.

ARTISTS:

Jessica Cottis Conductor
Markiyan Melnychenko Violin
Canberra Symphony Orchestra

PROGRAM:

LEAH CURTIS World premiere, new CSO commission

SIBELIUS Violin Concerto in D minor, op. 47

STRAVINSKY Petrushka (1947 version)