Sunday Arts Magazine

13 Feb 2023

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra – Sidney Myer Music Bowl

Arts, Performing Arts, Sunday Arts Magazine

Over three star-filled summer nights, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra will continue its more than 90-year
tradition of performing free concerts at the landmark Sidney Myer Music Bowl.
The 2023 summer program features Carlo Antonioli conducting the MSO for A Tchaikovsky Spectacular, before
Benjamin Northey takes the helm with the MSO Chorus and special guests performing Carl Orff’s monumental
Carmina Burana, and Mosaics – a celebration of up-and-coming contemporary artists Ag Johnson, ELAURA,
Nomad and HVSH, the world premiere of a new work from Melissa Douglas, and a new work co-created with
South Asian arts platform Sangam.
On Wednesday 8 February, audiences at the Bowl will experience the passionate and exhilarating music of the
great composer Tchaikovsky. Set against the majestic backdrop of the city skyline, A Tchaikovsky Spectacular
features some of the composer’s best-known works from opera (Eugene Onegin) and ballet (Swan Lake) to the
climatic 1812 Overture.
On Wednesday 15 February, Mosaics – Contemporary Sounds of Melbourne opens with a fanfare
commissioned for the occasion and composed by the 2023 Cybec Young Composer in Residence, Melissa
Douglas.
The MSO will be joined on stage by four dynamic artists from Melbourne’s outer suburbs, each performing one
of their original works, developed in partnership with GRID Series. These inspiring performances will showcase
the diversity of Melbourne’s thriving music scene – from Ag Johnson’s authentic and heart felt African
storytelling, and Nomad’s Pasifika-Māori soul, hip hop and jazz influences, to HVSH’s multi-faceted, genre-
crossing sounds and distinctive tenor, and Elaura’s neo-soul and alt R&B vocal stylings.
Mosaics culminates in the world premiere of an MSO Commission Agam. Presented by Sangam, Agam
comprised three intertwined ancient, contemporary and futuristic stories of Tamil Australians who live and work
on the unceded lands of the Kulin Nation. Weaving together an anti-colonial perspective, this intercultural
performance frames music as dance, visuals and storytelling to explore marginality, home, and belonging,
created by Priya Srinivasan, Hari Sivanesan, Uthra Vijay, Sridhar Chari and Alex Turley with Sri Andal and
Tulsidas Goswami.
On Saturday 18 February, the final concert for the Summer Series, Carmina Burana opens with Hannah Shin,
winner of the Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition, performing Prokofiev’s most acclaimed Piano Concerto No.3,
under the baton of Benjamin Northey.
Then, like great crashing gods bursting through the skies, Northey and the MSO will bring Carl Orff’s thundering
Carmina Burana to glorious fruition in the spectacular setting of the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Featuring Kathryn
Radcliffe soprano, Paul McMahon tenor, Warwick Fyfe bass-baritone, and the MSO Chorus under director
Warren Trevelyan-Jones.

Also part of proceedings on Saturday 18 February, is the annual Curtain Raiser by Melbourne Youth Orchestras
conducted by Brett Kelly. MYO will perform Bernstein’s Candide Overture, Alan Silvestri’s Suite from the film
Forrest Gump, Marquez’s Danzon No.2 and, alongside the MSO Chorus, Borodin’s Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dances.

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