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Melbourne Symphony Orchestra: Ryman Healthcare Season Opening Gala: Jaime conducts The Planets
Join the MSO and Jaime Martín for two of the most emotionally-stirring works of all time.
Alban Gerhardt brings intense musicality to perform Elgar’s ravishing Cello Concerto, and Gustav Holst’s magnificent The Planets gets a new celestial addition.
Elgar composed his Cello Concerto in the aftermath of the First World War. This extraordinary piece – at once emotionally reserved and overflowing in its lyrical expansiveness – has become a cornerstone of 20th century music.
While Elgar was writing his Cello Concerto, Gustav Holst sat elsewhere in England pondering the mysteries of the solar system. The resulting suite – The Planets – takes us on an otherworldly journey among these heavenly bodies, exploring each in the context of their corresponding Greek and Roman Gods. Perhaps the best known of these – Jupiter – has since become the melody to English anthem ‘I vow to Thee, My Country’.
A newly-commissioned work by Yorta Yorta composer Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO completes the picture – a First Nations perspective on Earth to join its siblings among the stars.
