Artistic Director's Introduction to the Season

"Humanism wasn't in the separate activities: humanism was the connection between them." Clive James

It is between the notes; it is from within these spaces that we experience the ineffable emotions that music so powerfully and uniquely provides. Music is the purest art form – a form you cannot touch, smell, taste or see. There is also majesty in its resilience to a moral imperative; it lives of itself and for the individual approach of the beholder.

You can, of course, touch and see our brochure, wherein we valiantly try to describe our music. These words are charged with the responsibility of convincing you to continue reading to explore our musical offering, so you may be enticed to subscribe or re-subscribe to the ACO; for without you (the beholder) we cannot exist.

As set out in the following pages, our program as a whole must appeal – paraphrasing Mozart – to the connoisseur and also to those who know nothing at all. Therein lies the challenge of balance; a challenge we relish, as we embrace all comers to our concerts. We urge you to come into the space of the concert hall to discover your own space between the notes in the esoteric and mysterious program presented by John Storgårds, one of our guest leaders in 2008; or later as the esoteric shifts to a more generic music with our other guest leader Alina Ibragimova in Vivaldi’s perennially compelling Four Seasons – not heard on an ACO stage for many years.

After several successful collaborations over the years, a stand-out has been our work with Lyn Williams and her unbelievable Gondwana Voices children’s choir, whose singing invokes a belief in magic. With them we will present a new commission involving Michael Yezerski who worked with me on the film score to Cape of Storms.

It can be a long journey from the “dreaming” of programs through to actual performance. And dreamt we have for many years of crosspollinating with the talents of great Australian vocalist Katie Noonan whose ethereal voice will be the perfect medium through which to explore the tradition of English song. I welcome back long-time ACO comrades Steven Isserlis, one of the world’s most expressive cellists, and mercurial wonder-pianist Melvyn Tan.

Whether you are 8 or 80; whether you listen as a neophyte or veteran; we invite you to come with us to find the spaces between the notes where mysterious secrets and emotions are unleashed. It is in these spaces that we find our connections and commonality as humans.

Richard Tognetti, Artistic Director

Click here to view the 2008 Season brochure online.