2020 Season
Our 2020 Season has been announced. Explore the Season or purchase your subscription package via the links below.
Creative Responses to our 2020 Season
Explore the short films we commissioned from six graphic artists, created with our musicians and featuring music from our 2020 Season.
Collaboration and experimentation lie at the heart of everything we do at the ACO. So in a year where we mark 30 years of artistic leadership with Richard Tognetti, and 250 years of enduring musical influence by Beethoven, we decided to celebrate these milestones by commissioning a series of short films, inspired by our musicians and the music in our 2020 Season.
These sound and motion experiments utilise the latest 3D animation technology to communicate humanity, emotion and the often visceral response we have to music.
Each of the six films was created as a collaboration between an artist and an ACO musician. Their thoughts on the piece and the art are captured in the quotes below each piece.
Tabula Rasa
“Pärt's genius is being in touch with the physical and the divine in such a compelling way.” - The Musician, Satu Vänskä
“There is a sense of creature or a god-like being, but it is invisible. The only thing we see is the dynamic movement of the strings.” - The Artist, Nidia Dias
'Eroica' Symphony
“Symphony No.3, the great ‘Eroica’, with all its political overtones and the crossing out of the Napoleonic dedication, is a great dramatic story.” - The Musician, Richard Tognetti
“We take a journey to find the ideal hero that Beethoven was trying to portray.” - The Artist, Helen Hsu
Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony
“Every time I play Shostakovich’s music it speaks straight to my heart. All his music comes from a place of suffering.” - The Musician, Ilya Isakovich
“The sense of terror, fear, and turmoil is palpable, suggesting the towering oppression of the state.” - The Artist, Rory McLean
Song of the Earth
“Mahler's music comes from a dark but beautiful place that aspires to create eternal perfection.” - The Musician, Maja Savnik
“While Mahler's music contains sorrowful moments, I've focused on the more colourful celebration of life.” - The Artist, Scott Geersen
La Folia
“La Folia is an incredibly versatile form which enables us to let loose and improvise on its building blocks, reinventing the music each time it is performed.” - The Musician, Timo-Veikko Valve
“These layered, abstract structures represent the format of La Folia, a base that's been built upon as a foundation for modern music.” - The Artist, Rich Nosworthy
The Lark Ascending
“Suddenly you'll see this bird just take off vertically, miles up into the air, singing this incredible song. That's what Vaughan Williams was depicting” - The Musician, Helena Rathbone
“I wanted to capture the poetic act of ascending in the form of a feather floating upwards into the air.” - The Artist, Martina Stiftinger
