TRIUMPH & TRAGEDY

Triumph & Tragedy brought together four works spanning more than two centuries of orchestral music, connected not by period or style but by their contrasting approaches to drama, intensity and emotional extremes. The program opened with the world premiere of Amy Skellern’s Sunrise on Saturn, placing a new Australian work alongside Richard Wagner’s Siegfried’s Funeral March from Götterdämmerung. From there, the program moved into the extraordinary virtuosity of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, performed by soloist Lisa Smith, before concluding with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.

Conducted by Josh Spirek, the program was characteristic of a2. orchestra’s approach to programming: bringing familiar orchestral works into conversation with new music and finding connections beyond conventional repertoire groupings. The contrast between Skellern’s newly imagined orchestral sound, Wagner’s monumental farewell, Tchaikovsky’s intensely personal virtuosity and Beethoven’s rhythmic energy created a program that moved continually between the intimate and the monumental, the familiar and the new.

Amy Skellern - Sunrise on Saturn (World Premiere)
Richard Wagner - Siegfried’s Funeral March from Götterdämmerung
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto in D major
Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No. 7 in A major

Josh Spirek - Conductor
Lisa Smith - Solo Violin
Helena O'Sullivan - Concertmaster