Mazzoli, Dvorák & Sibelius

The MSO marks its return to Melbourne Town Hall with one of Australia’s brightest young stars of classical music.

A violinist in good company
As an alumnus of the famed Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Australian Grace Clifford joins the company of fellow violinists Lara St. John, Hilary Hahn and Ray Chen. No big deal! Since she won the ABC Young Performer of the Year Award at 16 years of age, Clifford has proven herself one of the country’s finest young violinists. Here she performs Dvořák’s Violin Concerto, a work of exuberant energy with the charm of traditional Czech folk music.

New but strangely familiar
American Missy Mazzoli’s These Worlds in Us explores the themes of grief and joy. Mazzoli says, “I like the idea that music can reflect painful and blissful sentiments in a single note or gesture, and sought to create a sound palette that I hope is at once completely new and strangely familiar to the listener.”

Abandoning tradition
With his seventh and final symphony, Sibelius abandoned traditional symphonic form and the grand, sweeping gestures of his earlier symphonies. The result? A dynamic and joyous work for which some claim the Finnish composer as the greatest symphonist of the 20th century.