Melbourne Symphony Orchestra presents Mendelssohn and Brahms

Davis will be joined by MSO Young Artist in Association Christian Li, who will tackle Mendelssohn’s astonishing Violin Concerto.

Carl Vine’s MicroSymphony kicks into gear with an explosive beginning and barely eases in energy for the remaining ten minutes. Mellifluous passages on flute provide contrast with thundering, frenetic material developed from a four-note motif.

To describe Christian Li as a violin wunderkind would not be an understatement: at ten years old he became the youngest ever winner of the Junior 1st Prize in the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition. Li’s precision and musical sophistication beyond his years will be showcased in Mendelssohn’s virtuosic Violin Concerto.

Brahms composed his Fourth Symphony during a summer retreat in the mountains south of Vienna. Music critic Eduard Hanslick gave it an insightful and glowing review, citing Brahms’ “sovereign mastery of all the secrets of counterpoint, harmony, and instrumentation, [and of] the logic of development combined with the most beautiful freedom of fantasy.”