Seventy-five years ago, the Sydney Symphony consisted of just 24 players performing incidental music for radio plays, music for the dinner hour and broadcasts of concert repertoire. Today, as Australia’s premier orchestra, the Sydney Symphony and its 90 musicians are world acclaimed, giving hundreds of concerts each year throughout New South Wales and at its home, the Sydney Opera House.
This December, it’s Sydney’s chance to celebrate its own orchestra and the milestone achievement of reaching its 75th year.
To mark this historic event and to conclude its 2007 season, the Sydney Symphony, conducted by Chief Conductor and Artistic Director Maestro Gianluigi Gelmetti, will give a festive performance of music inspired by one of the best-loved tales ever told, Nutcracker.
Perhaps the greatest ballet ever danced and with some of the world’s most recognisable musical themes, Nutcracker is as sweet, sentimental and sparkling as Christmas itself.
Made famous the world over through the movie Fantasia, the Nutcracker symphonic suite depicts a fantasy world for the whole family and the Sydney Symphony brings this fairytale world to life with musical favourites such as the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Waltz of the Flowers.
Also as part of the concerts, the Sydney Symphony and Maestro Gelmetti will perform Tchaikovsky’s luscious Romeo and Juliet – Fantasy Overture and his grand Piano Concerto No.1 with guest pianist Louis Lortie.
When he last performed with the Sydney Symphony in 2005, Canadian-born Lortie dazzled audiences, with his performances described as “thrilling” and having an “intelligence and a wonderful capacity to control the sound at the piano and make it sing” (Sydney Morning Herald, 6/6/2005).
Audiences will also get to see Lortie perform with a chamber-sized group of Sydney Symphony musicians as part of the Orchestra’s Tea and Symphony concert on Friday 14 December at 11am at the Sydney Opera House. Lortie will perform Mozart’s bubbly Piano Concerto K459 and then direct the Orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings.
Be part of history as the Sydney Symphony brings its 75th Anniversary year to a triumphant close. -- www.sydneysymphony.com
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