Horns a Plenty

The overture to Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, opens the concert. Haunted Hills, a symphonic poem composed in 1950 by one of Australia's best-known composers, Margaret Sutherland AO OBE follows. Haunted Hills depicts the lush Dandenong Ranges juxtaposed with a reflection on the treatment of the traditional owners, the Bunurong and Woi Wurrung people, upon colonisation.

Dr Jillian Graham, author of Inner Song: a biography of Margaret Sutherland will give a pre-concert talk about Sutherland and Haunted Hills. Copies of Dr Graham's book will be available for purchase at interval.

Opal: Double Concerto for Horns and Orchestra was premiered in 2021 by the MSO's Nicolas Fleury and Rachel Shaw. We are delighted to present this work with the same soloists and to once again perform a work by May Lyon.

The concert concludes with Brahms' acclaimed First Symphony. In 1876, after 21 years and numerous drafts, Brahms proclaimed it was finally a worthy successor to Beethoven’s symphonies.