Mondays are likable with the Australian Chamber Orchestra
Some national companies are erratic when it comes to touring to Queensland but the Australian Chamber Orchestra has always kept the faith with the state’s loyal fans
Remember when Bob Geldof and The Boomtown Rats encapsulated all our feelings about the beginning of the week? I Don’t Like Mondays resonated because, well, we don’t care for Mondays much until they are behind us.
But Mondays take on a different lustre when the Australian Chamber Orchestra is in town. They routinely play in the Concert Hall at QPAC on a Monday, as they did recently with their charming Postcards from Italy concert.
Mondays at QPAC are usually quiet with all the big shows on a night off, but we found the place decidedly lively. And Monday nights are a gift because the QPAC car park is mostly empty as nobody else has quite got going yet for the week.
Enter the ACO, which sent six of its best to town (sometime the full orchestra comes, sometimes they break it down into components such as this sextet) for a tantalising program of works evoking Italy, home to some of chamber music’s greatest composers.
Of course, Tchaikovsky is not from Italy but he did spend time in Florence, a city he loved, and the second half of the program featured his Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70. Gorgeous stuff.
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The first part of the program featured music by, among others, Bach and Boccherini.
Looking around I noticed a vibrant and diverse audience that included stalwarts who are there every time the ACO comes to town, including Dr Ian Frazer and his wife Caroline, music lovers and patrons of the arts and major supporters of the ACO.
The ACO transported us to Italy for the evening and it was a wonderful way to begin the week. They have been performing here on Monday nights for years and it’s a good night to play unencumbered by competition from other shows.
And they are not done with 2023, because they are returning in November with their season closing show, which sounds scrumptious. For that performance we will have virtuoso pianist Polina Leschenko joining the ACO to play Chopin’s Piano Concert No. 2 and Felix Mendelssohn’s Concert for Violin and Piano. The orchestra’s visionary artistic director Richard Tognetti will lead the orchestra on his violin for that concert, which will be a lovely way to end the year.
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We love the ACO, which has been a ground-breaking orchestra in so many ways. It has a genius for collaboration and those collaborations have included some surprising people including the cartoonist Michael Leunig and, among others, one of my favourites, James Crabb, the Scottish-born bandoneon (a kind of Argentinian piano accordion) player.
Next year promises to be a good one, with the season recently launched. We won’t have to wait too long in 2024, as on February 12 he ACO will deliver a rather unusual concert, called River. ACO artistic director Richard Tognetti and director Jennifer Peedom follow their acclaimed film Mountain with a cinematic exploration of waterways that have shaped our world. This concert will be an awe-inspiring combination of timeless music, captivating cinematography and distinctive narration by none other than Hollywood actor Willem Dafoe. The score features music by Tognetti and our own didgeridoo superstar William Barton, along with Bach, Vivaldi, Mahler and others, including Radiohead.
ACO sees music as a broad church. It sounds captivating and I have no doubt it will be.
May 2024 will see the ACO’s next appearance in Brisbane with Mahler’s Song of the Earth, followed by the ACO debut of world-renowned cellist and storyteller Nicolas Alstaedt with Alstaedt Plays Haydn & Tchaikovsky. In August they collaborate with Sydney Dance Company in Silence & Rapture along with countertenor Iestyn Davies. Then there’s Tognetti: Mendelssohn. Bach in September. In November next year Scotland Unbound will feature guitarist Sean Shibe celebrating his Scottish heritage with the orchestra. Expect some traditional Scottish music in the mix.
It will be quite a year. As ACO managing director Richard Evans says in his introduction to the season brochure, “our 2024 Season champions the ACO as an orchestra without limits”.
Meanwhile Richard Tognetti points out that the ACO is not about to be affected by AI.
“I feel incredibly fortunate to be working in possibly one of the last unscathed bastions of human endeavour,” he says. “From centuries-old wooden instruments and gut strings, to the callouses we develop on our fingertips from hours of practising, the beauty and power of live music cannot be usurped by machines just yet.” Amen to that.
aco.com.au