Arvo Part & Shostakovich (CANCELLED) (expired event)

Witness the work of the great Estonian composer Arvo Part and symphonies of Shostakovich performed at the Perth Concert Hall.

Great art and the Soviet regime.  Joy and creativity can’t be held down forever, so even in the darkest decades of cruel oppression that spread from Soviet Russia through Eastern Europe in the 20th century, music bloomed and imaginations flew. Humour, black as some of it may have been, also thrived. This was life, as the Russians like to say, “laughing through tears”. Estonian Arvo Pärt is one of the most performed and influential living composers. In his deeply loved work Tabula Rasa, for two violins, prepared piano and orchestra, he extends “small steps of tolerance to the world”, seeking spirituality and independence through silence and harmony.

Meanwhile, within Russia, Shostakovich and Prokofiev represented two still hotly contested strands: the supposed collaborators and the resisters. Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony in C minor, a signature piece for the virtuosic ACO, was a lament for victims of fascism and war, but also an act of self-reflection whose movements evolve from elegy and brutal force into acceptance and farewell. Resistance will be whispered, literally, during Saariaho’s Nymphéa: Misterioso. The short piece by the Finnish composer, whose country has always had a complicated and delicate relationship with its large neighbour, Russia, includes a poem by the great 20th-century Russian poet, Arseny Tarkovsky, which will be whispered by members of the Orchestra.

ARTISTS
Richard Tognetti Director & Violin
Satu Vanska Violin
Australian Chamber Orchestra

PROGRAM
KILAR - Orawa 8′
ARVO PÄRT - Tabula Rasa 26′
PROKOFIEV - Sonata for Solo Violin in D major* 13′
KAIJA SAARIAHO - Nymphéa: Misterioso (arr. strings) – Australian Premiere 3′
SHOSTAKOVICH - Chamber Symphony (arr. Barshai) 23′

RUNNING TIMES
Start 7:30pm
Finishes approx. 9.30pm
Includes 20 min. interval

Times are approximate and subject to change at any time.