SSO ON TOUR

News has arrived, rather indirectly via the Austrian National Tourist Office, that the Sydney Symphony Orchestra has a concert scheduled on September 4, 2010 in the gardens of Schloss Grafenegg outside Vienna, in their Music Festival.

The orchestra will be making their debut along with quite a lineup - the Cleveland Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Mariinsky Orchestra St. Petersburg, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Orchestre National de France, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Bavarian State Orchestra Munich and the NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg.

There's nothing I can find on the SSO website, and their search engine is not recognising anything I type in, even words I can spell, like Sidney. Certainly, there is a gap in the orchestra's home calender from August 13 to September 20. So, while it's a long way and big expense to go for one concert, perhaps no news means we are waiting on some other arrangements to be finalised.

It is Austria, and it is the 150th anniversary of Mahler's birthday, and one year short of the 100th anniversary of his death. We are lucky that these years are being given the recognition they deserve by Mr Ashkenazy and the orchestra here at home. Interestingly, of the 14 performances of the Festival, only 3 include Mahler. The Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra programme includes Songs for Voice and Orchestra (sic); The Orchestra National de France (c Gatti) play Mahler 5; and the NDR Sinfonieorchester (c von Dohnenyi) play Mahler 4.

The SSO advertised programme is :
Antonín Dvorák – “Carnival” Overture in A major. op. 92

Maurice Ravel – Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G major (Hélène Grimaud)

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky – “Manfred” Symphony in B minor op. 58.

What a pity we don't get to show how Mahler sounds down here.

UPDATE (17 March):

Thanks to Marcellous (comment below) more news is in.

The Lucerne Summer Music Festival has the SSO playing on Monday 23 August, the progrmme:

Sibelius "Rakastava" Op. 14

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 OP. 73 (Helene Grimaud)

Tchaikovsky "Manfred" Symphony Op. 58

On 26 August the Orchestra will be part of the huge Rheingau Musik Festival (153 concerts; 42 venues) in an already sold out concert (you will need to scroll to the bottom of page 6 of the programme details for that date) of Dvorak, Beethoven (Piano No. 5 again I guess) and Elgar. This festival opens with Mahler 2, c Parvi, again with you know who. (love that home page photo - is that camp or what?). I wonder about the acoustics, but oh to be there.

The Merano Festival has nothing on the SSO yet that I can see.

Wishing them well.....

UPDATE (23 March):

I think it goes something like this:

August 23 LUCERNE

Sibelius - "Rakastava" Op. 14

Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 5 OP. 73 (Helene Grimaud)

Tchaikovsky - "Manfred" Symphony Op. 58

August 26 WIESBADEN

Dvorak

Beethoven (Grimaud)

Elgar

September 1 EDINBURGH

Elgar - In the South

Ross Edwards - Maningas - Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (Dene Olding)

Sculthorpe - Momento Mori

Elgar - Enigma Variations

September 2 EDINBURGH

Sibelius - Rakastava

Ravel - Piano Concerto in G (Helene Grimaud)

Matthew Hindson - Energy

Richard Strauss - Der Rosenkavalier Suite

September 4 VIENNA (Schloss Grafenegg)

Antonín Dvorák – “Carnival” Overture in A major. op. 92

Maurice Ravel – Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G major (Hélène Grimaud)

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky – “Manfred” Symphony in B minor op. 58.

September 7 MERANO

Sibelius - Rakastava

Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 5 (Grimaud)

Tchaikovsky - Symphony "Manfred" Op. 58

UPDATE April 24

For the record, tour details are now available from the Orchestra

22 Aug Stresa, Italy Stresa Festival

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.5 (Emperor)

Daniele Petralia, piano

SCRIABIN The Divine Poem (Symphony No.3)

23 Aug Lucerne, Switzerland , Lucerne Festival

SIBELIUS Rakastava (The Lover), Op.14

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.5 (Emperor)

Hélène Grimaud, piano

TCHAIKOVSKY Manfred Symphony

24 Aug London, UK BBC Proms

R STRAUSS Der Rosenkavalier: Suite

RAVEL Piano Concerto in G

Hélène Grimaud, piano

SCRIABIN The Divine Poem (Symphony No.3)

26 Aug Wiesbaden, Germany Rheingau Music Festival

DVOŘÁK Carnival Overture

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.5 (Emperor)

Hélène Grimaud, piano

ELGAR Enigma Variations

28 Aug Bremen, Germany Musikfest Bremen Program TBC

29 Aug Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Robeco Zomer Concert Series at the Concertgebouw

R STRAUSS Der Rosenkavalier: Suite

RAVEL Piano Concerto in G

Hélène Grimaud, piano

ELGAR Enigma Variations

1 Sep Edinburgh, UK Edinburgh International Festival

ELGAR In the South (Alassio)

EDWARDS Maninyas – Violin Concerto

Dene Olding, violin

SCULTHORPE Memento mori

ELGAR Enigma Variations

2 Sep Edinburgh, UK Edinburgh International Festival

SIBELIUS Rakastava (The Lover), Op.14

RAVEL Piano Concerto in G

Hélène Grimaud, piano

HINDSON Energy

R STRAUSS Der Rosenkavalier: Suite

4 Sep Grafenegg, Austria Grafenegg Music Festival

DVOŘÁK Carnival Overture

RAVEL Piano Concerto in G

Hélène Grimaud, piano

TCHAIKOVSKY Manfred Symphony