A mythic journey from Ancient Greece to Mother Goose, celebrating age-old stories and musical masters.

Myths are among our oldest stories, telling and retelling where we have come from, our deepest desires, and who we believe ourselves to be. Mythology runs deeper than instruction, expressing something ancient and elemental about our shared experience.

This program opens with something old and something new: a world premiere from Australian composer Peggy Polias – our Composer in Connection for 2025 – inspired by the mythology of Ancient Greece.

In Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye, we immerse ourselves in the colourful world of children’s folklore: another form of mythology, with no less depth. Literally ‘My Mother the Goose’, this exquisite suite – originally composed as a piano duet – features such timeless characters as Sleeping Beauty and Tom Thumb.

A gifted storyteller and a master orchestrator, Ravel crafts a rich sonic fantasy that culminates in the Fairy Garden, a magical paradise where the sun never sets.

We close with a masterwork from a composer of mythological standing. Handed down like a story from one virtuoso to the next, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto is a mature and dignified work that reflects the composer’s creative mastery at the time of writing – as well as his personal journey through life’s ups and downs. He penned no cadenza, allowing many imaginative violinists over the decades to fill in the blanks. While this concerto entered the repertoire quietly, without celebration, it has since become one of Beethoven’s most cherished compositions

Artists
Carlo Antonioli Conductor
Sophie Rowell Violin
Canberra Symphony Orchestra

Repertoire 
PEGGY POLIAS COMPOSER IN CONNECTION World premiere, new CSO commission
MAURICE RAVEL Ma mère l’Oye
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61