MENDELSSOHN The Hebrides Overture (Fingal’s Cave)

MOZART Piano Concerto No.27 in B flat

BEETHOVEN Symphony No.8

Andrew Haveron: violin-director

Alessio Bax: piano

Sydney Symphony Orchestra

Alessio Bax plays Mozart’s transcendent final piano concerto, Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture transports us to the wild isles of Scotland and Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony packs a punch with its unstoppable energy.

Mendelssohn visited Scotland’s Hebridean Islands when he was twenty. The incredible seascape and the otherworldly Fingal’s Cave inspired one of his best known works, and one of the greatest soundscapes in orchestral literature.

Mozart's final piano concerto stands apart for its sober perfection and innocent directness. The concerto’s slow movement suspends time with a melody as serene as it is simple, played with disarming grace by Alessio Bax, a pianist who communicates the radiance of this music. This is one of the composer’s most personal works: reflective, nostalgic and songful.

And Beethoven releases his inner child in his fizzy Symphony No.8 – short, and seriously playful. Overshadowed by its bigger siblings, the Eighth is cheekily radical music. Instead of a grand statement, this is the symphony as a bundle of vivacious energy.

Founded in 1932, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra has grown into one of Australia’s leading cultural organisations. Resident at the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Symphony also performs regularly across New South Wales, performing a wide array of music from classical repertoire to popular music in collaboration with guest artists and composers from around the globe.