What power music has to evoke the awe-inspiring beauty of the natural world! This concert, conducted by Finnish maestro Erkki Lasonpalo, brings together four works in which the ANAM Orchestra becomes a canvas which will paint nature pictures both grand and intimate.

On the one hand you have Sibelius’ En Saga, a gnarly evocation of the forested world of Finnish legend. On the other you have a majestically quiet remembrance of the Bohemian woodland at twilight, in Dvořák’s Silent Woods. One of Dvořák’s most popular works is the symphony From the New World, which he composed while living in the United States. The grandly conceived Gaelic symphony by Boston-based composer and pianist Amy Beach might be called From the Old World, for her inspiration lay in the folk melodies of the Irish people, which she weaves throughout this richly romantic work.

Lotta Wennäkoski has become one of Finland’s most distinguished and successful composers. Like her compatriot Sibelius, her music is rich in tonal colour, and like him, her ideas seem to flow organically one from the other. When commissioned to write a companion piece to Sibelius’ En Saga in 2015, Wennäkoski decided ‘to be as capricious as I can with the material picked up from Sibelius’ work.’ You’ll hear the result in her Verdigris, here being given its first Australian performance.

Antonin Dvořák Silent Woods
Lotta Wennäkoski Verdigris
Jean Sibelius En Saga
Amy Beach Gaelic Symphony

Erkki Lasonpalo conductor
Joshua Jones cello
ANAM Orchestra

Saturday 01 Jun 2024, 7 PM

This concert will last 120 minutes, including a 20-minute interval.

St Kilda Town Hall, 99a Carlisle St, ST KILDA VIC

TICKETS: A Little Extra $70.00, Standard $50.00, A Little Less $30.00