Obra: Visions Fugitives (arr. Barshai), Op.22

TCO principal flute Joshua Smith stood out in seminal works for solo flute by Debussy and Takemitsu. Organist Paul Jacobs was a capable soloist in Poulenc’s concerto, while Franz Welser-Möst led imaginatively orchestrated segments of Prokofiev’s Visions fugitives.

On a day when Christians around the world reflect on suffering, torment and lost hope, but with the distant promise of light soon to return, the strings of Northern Sinfonia offered a programme that could serve as a secular, humanist alternative to Good Friday; music written in dark times and troubled places of 20th-century Europe, music that is at times brooding and disturbed, sadly nostalgic but

A feast of Russian chamber music was what was on offer for the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s latest concert. Featuring music by Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky in a program entitled Russian Visions, the ACO with guest soloists Steven Osborne and David Elton provided an evening of music which was visionary, electrifying and intense in equal measures.