Rites of reunion: The Australian World Orchestra visits Sydney

By David Larkin, 04 October 2013

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Reviewed at Sydney Opera House: Concert Hall, Sydney on 3 October 2013

Stravinsky, Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring)

Mahler, Symphony no. 1 in D major "Titan"

Mahler, Blumine

Australian World Orchestra

Zubin Mehta, Conductor

Zubin Mehta and the Australian World Orchestra in Sydney

Zoltán Szabó, 2nd September

Zubin Mehta conducts a trio of Strauss tone poems as the Australian World Orchestra arrives back in Sydney.

*****

World-class from Down Under: Australian World Orchestra at the Proms

Alexander Hall, 23rd August

Zubin Mehta, Siobhan Stagg and the players of the AWO were on top of their game in works by Webern, Debussy and Brahms, where the connections were as potent as the contrasts.

*****

From little things, big things grow: The AWO returns to Sydney

David Larkin, 2nd May

On their return to Sydney, the Australian World Orchestra under Riccardo Muti offer a subdued reading of Brahms’ Symphony no. 2 and a thrilling account of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no. 4.

****1

Australians around the world unite with Simon Rattle at the helm

Zoltán Szabó, 31st July

The idea of bringing together a country’s best players from all around the world to show off their combined might is all too familiar for football fans during any FIFA World Cup. It is far less common, indeed, almost unknown in classical music.

*****

Shared language and living history: Zubin Mehta and the Vienna Phil

Chanda VanderHart, 19th March

Zubin Mehta, Pinchas Zukerman and the Vienna Philharmonic meet in repertoire they know intimately, illuminating it through mutual understanding.

*****

Coming home to Bruckner: Zubin Mehta’s late-style Eighth in LA

Laurence Vittes, 9th November

At 89, the former Music Director returns to the Los Angeles Philharmonic to conduct Bruckner's Eighth Symphony, revealing the music’s interior world.

****1

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David Larkin

David Larkin is a Senior Lecturer in Musicology at the University of Sydney, where he specialises in nineteenth-century music. Educated at Dublin and Cambridge, he has published on the music of Richard Strauss, Liszt and Wagner. As a reviewer, he has reported from the Bayreuth Festival and reviewed opera and concert performances in four different countries. He gives regular pre-concert talks and educational lectures at venues all around Sydney and enjoys singing with choirs and playing the piano (in private).