Masters Series

CHEVRON AUSTRALIA MASTERS SERIES

Simone Young and Jean-Yves Thibaudet are just two of the world-renowned guest artists who join WASO in this powerful series of orchestral music.

TCHAIKOVSKY'S PATHETIQUE

Gala Season Opening

7.30pm, friday 15 & saturday 16 MARCH
perth concert hall

“Without exaggeration, I have put my entire soul into this symphony,” wrote Tchaikovsky of his Symphony Pathétique – an impassioned struggle with the power of fate. Strauss’ Four Last Songs are elegiac summations of life and death, their autumnal melodies soaring over a rich orchestral tapestry. Hear WASO in all its power, brilliance and beauty.

VERBITSKY'S EUROPE

7.30pm, friday 10 & saturday 11 May
perth concert hall

WASO presents an evening inspired by the sights and sounds of Europe. Respighi’s glorious Pines of Rome features a large orchestra of over 90 musicians and captures the splendour and majesty of Rome. Tchaikovsky’s sparkling Capriccio italien brings heroic fanfares and light hearted melodies together in what is one of his most popular works. WASO’s dynamic Principal Flute, Andrew Nicholson, will take centre stage for Mozart’s exquisite Classical masterpiece, his First Flute Concerto.

PROKOFIEV & SIBELIUS

7.30pm, friday 14 & saturday 15 JUNE
perth concert hall

Young Russian pianist Denis Kozhukhin has taken the concert world by storm with his stunning technical prowess and radiant musicality. He makes his WASO debut in Prokofiev’s dazzling and virtuosic concerto. Arvo Volmer is acclaimed for his special affinity with the music of Sibelius and he returns to Perth to thrill audiences with the Finnish master’s magnificent First Symphony.

SIMONE YOUNG CONDUCTS

7.30pm, friday 2 & saturday 3 aUGUST
perth concert hall

Shostakovich’s dramatic Tenth Symphony is one of his greatest works. From a sinister, brooding opening and searing depiction of Stalin, to a finale of exultant rejoicing, Shostakovich’s music takes you on a journey of emotional extremes. Britten’s captivating Violin Concerto receives its WASO premiere by Concertmaster Giulio Plotino.

MOZART & MAHLER

Perth Concert Hall 40th Anniversary Celebration

7.30pm, friday 23 & saturday 24 AUGUST
perth concert hall

Mahler’s Seventh Symphony is one of his most inspirational works. With two ‘Night Music’ movements, revealing imagined worlds of haunting fantasy, it journeys from sombre opening sonorities to a ‘Daylight’ finale of blazing brilliance. To open this concert, Mozart’s graceful Night Serenade is framed by short works of ethereal beauty from a master of orchestral colour, Toru Takemitsu.

ASHER FISCH CONDUCTS

7.30pm, friday 6 & saturday 7 SEPTEMBER
perth concert hall

Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde explores the agonies and ecstasies of love and loss through music of yearning and supreme bliss. Following his sensational debut in 2011, Alban Gerhardt returns to Perth to perform Schumann’s lyrical concerto, described by legendary cellist Pablo Casals as “sublime music from beginning to end”. Brahms’ poetic Third Symphony concludes this magnificent concert led by Principal Conductor Designate Asher Fisch.

STRAUSS & RAVEL

7.30pm, friday 18 & saturday 19 OCTOBER
perth concert hall

Strauss’ extravagant tone poem, Don Juan, launches this exhilarating concert of orchestral showpieces. Experience the fabulous new Violin Concerto by award-winning WA composer James Ledger performed by WASO Associate Concertmaster Margaret Blades, before savouring Stravinsky’s neo-classic masterpiece and Ravel’s exotically coloured orchestral rhapsody.

JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET PLAYS GERSHWIN

Gala

7.30pm, friday 29 & saturday 30 NOVEMBER
perth concert hall

Always a favourite with Perth audiences, Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s dazzling technique, poetic musicianship and natural charisma are a perfect match for Gershwin’s sparkling Piano Concerto. Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, with its astonishing depictions of a lovesick musician’s hallucinatory fantasies, will provide an electrifying finale to Paul Daniel’s final Masters Series concert as Principal Conductor.