MSO: Sonority and Silence – Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique

With work performed all over the world, British-born Thomas Adès is one of the most highly acclaimed living opera composers. This ballroom music from his 1995 opera Powder her Face features sleazy clarinets and characterful brass – high energy musical flirtation with a scandalous lilt, reminiscent of the iconic dance scenes from Bernstein’s West Side Story.

Australian composer Anna Cawrse describes The Rest is Silence as “a prayer, a celebration, and a meditation on the quiet still spaces, the silence amidst the hustle, and the enduring power of music”. This concerto features MSO Principal Cor Anglais Michael Pisani in an exploration of this remarkable instrument, often used to express music’s most melancholic, bittersweet, and emotionally profound moments.

Tchaikovsky wrote that his Sixth Symphony was “the best thing I ever composed or shall compose” – a big claim from the man who wrote Swan Lake and The Nutcracker. This remarkable symphony is infinitely relatable, exploring a struggle between the strength of life force, and emotional and physical demise. In a break from standard practice of the time, this incredible cornerstone of romantic repertoire ends in quiet, contemplative dissolution.