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ACO Pier 2/3

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ACO Principal Bass Maxime Bibeau looking up while performing

Nordic Noir

These performances have been suspended due to the outbreak of COVID-19. If you are a current ticket holder, please click here to review your options to donate your tickets, or to receive a credit or refund. 

Is it the lush melodies and the way the music can evoke landscapes rich with extremes? Is it the way the past influences and infiltrates the present, whether in folk melodies repurposed or nods to composers past?

In a program that ranges from Iceland and Finland to Denmark and Norway, with a diversion to the outlier, Latvia, Sibelius’s Andante Festivo and Grieg’s Erotikk bring an elegant, sometimes sombre romanticism to the fore, while arrangements of traditional Danish folks songs offer something playful and joyful. 

Excitingly, there is the Australian premiere of Illumine by one of this century’s most electrifying talents, Iceland’s Anna Thorvaldsdottir, who balances subtle sounds within ruggedly grand musical landscapes.

On a more intimate, but hardly less dramatic, scale will be Maxime Bibeau’s solo double bass tour-de-force in Vasks’ Bass Trip which amplifies the Latvian composer’s own background as a double bass player, while the free fantasies of Rautavaara’s The Fiddlers reconnects contemporary Finland with its folk roots.

Program Details

ANNA THORVALDSDOTTIR – Illumine – Australian Premiere
7:00
SIBELIUS – Andante Festivo
6:00
PETTERSSON – Sonata for Two Violins No.2
6:00
GRIEG – Erotik (arr. Tognetti)
3:00
RAUTAVAARA – The Fiddlers
8:00
PĒTERIS VASKS – Bass Trip
10:00
LEIFS – String Quartet No.3 “El Greco”: V. The Resurrection (arr. strings)
2:00
TRADITIONAL – Wood Works: Selections (arr. Danish String Quartet)
12:00
OLLI MUSTONEN – Nonetto No.1
16:00
CONCERT duration
90 min (incl interval)
Playlist by the ACO
Nordic Noir

Artists

ACO Artistic Director Richard Tognetti

Richard Tognetti AO

Director & Violin

Richard Tognetti is Artistic Director and Lead Violin of the ACO. He has established an international reputation for his compelling performances and artistic individualism.

Richard has appeared as director or soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras. He was Artistic Director of Slovenia’s Festival Maribor from 2008 to 2015 and the first Artist-in-Residence at the Barbican Centre’s Milton Court in 2016. In addition, he has curated and co-composed film scores including the ACO’s Mountain.

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ACO Principal Violin Satu Vanska

Satu Vänskä

Violin & Vocals

Satu Vänskä was appointed Principal Violin of the ACO in 2004. She regularly performs as lead violin and soloist with the ACO. Satu is also frontwoman, violinist and vocalist of ACO Underground, the ACO’s electro-infused, experimental spin-off band.
ACO Principal Bass Maxime Bibeau

Maxime Bibeau

Principal Double Bass

Maxime Bibeau has been Principal Double Bass of the ACO since 1998. He regularly performs as a soloist with the ACO and has also performed with orchestras including the SHIRA International Symphony Orchestra Israel, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
The Australian Chamber Orchestra on stage

Australian Chamber Orchestra

The Australian Chamber Orchestra travels a remarkable road. Making waves across Australia and around the world for its explosive performances and brave interpretations, the ACO embraces celebrated classics alongside new commissions, and adventurous cross-artform collaborations.

Composers

Composer Sibeleus

Jean Sibelius

Jean Sibelius is widely regarded as Finland’s greatest composer. Much of his music is nationalistic, and helped Finland develop a national identity during its struggle for independence from Russia. Sibelius is one of the 20th century’s great symphonists, famous for his seven symphonies, his tone poem Finlandia, and his celebrated Violin Concerto.
Composer Edvard Grieg

Edvard Grieg

Edvard Grieg is the most famous Norwegian composer, known for using Norwegian folk melodies in his own compositions, and helping Norway develop its national identity. He is best known for his incidental music to Peer Gynt, which has seen extensive use in popular culture, and his Piano Concerto.
Composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir

Anna Thorvaldsdottir

Anna Thorvaldsdottir is an Icelandic composer whose boundless textural imagination and striking sound world have made her one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary music. Her music is written as an ecosystem of sounds, and is performed by the likes of the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Ensemble Intercontemporain.
A portrait of Pēteris Vasks

Pēteris Vasks

Pēteris Vasks is a Latvian composer whose intense and lyrical music pursues themes such as the complex interaction between man and nature, and the beauty of life pitted against the imminent ecological and moral destruction of the world. His 2008 work Vox Amoris, composed for Richard Tognetti and the ACO, has become a staple of the orchestra’s repertoire.

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