Prodigies

The concerto as a vehicle for virtuosic display flourished during the 19th Century, becoming increasingly complex and ambitious works. While performances of typical concerto in the baroque era lasted about ten minutes, those by Beethoven, for example, could last half an hour or longer. Concertos from all ages, since their development in late 1600s, have remained a conspicuous and important part of the repertoire for concert performances and recordings and this concert will feature the four soloists chosen from the Symphony Central Coast Concerto Competition.

To celebrate the 100th concert by the University of New South Wales Orchestra, Joe Wolfe was given a simple brief: write a piece that was 4 or 5 minutes of fun, using everybody, and to not take up much rehearsal time. The result, Circle of Fourths was inspired by the opening notes of the choral Old Hundredth, (so named because its words are from Psalm 100), and a desire to explore the melodic and harmonic possibilities of successive intervals of fourths.

In Verdi's opera Aida, Radames leads the Egyptian army on its return following the victory over the Ethiopians. Music that reflected triumph, victory and great joy was needed and Verdi obliged, giving us the succinctly named Grand March.