QPAC

Celebrating 50 years of virtuosity and brilliance with music by Bach, Beethoven, Ravel, Schubert and Kuusisto

Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) ACO Unleashed is an exhilarating celebration of the ACO at 50 – bold, virtuosic and utterly electrifying. Curated by Richard Tognetti to showcase the extraordinary talent within the ACO, this program highlights the individual artistry of ACO principals Helena Rathbone, Satu Vänskä and Timo-Veikko Valve, alongside our newest member, violinist Anna da Silva Chen, where classics by Bach, Beethoven, Schubert and Ravel, alongside Finnish master Jaakko Kuusisto, celebrate the ACO’s “unwavering energy and maverick imagination” (The Times, UK).

No celebration of the ACO would be complete without the music of JS Bach. The concert opens with the Concerto for Three Violins in D Major, which gloriously intertwines soloists Helena Rathbone, Satu Vänskä, and Anna da Silva Chen in a concerto that bursts with warmth, purity and brilliance.

Ravel’s Tzigane, a fiery and intoxicating masterwork for violin and orchestra, has long been considered one of his most electrifying compositions. Satu Vänskä’s virtuosity and magnetic presence will lead audiences through its thrilling journey – from haunting mystery to an exuberant and triumphant finale.

The ACO has a rich history of presenting Beethoven’s quartets. In Richard Tognetti’s own arrangement for string orchestra of the String Quartet in F minor, Op.95 “Serioso”, the intense turbulence and poetic brilliance – foreshadowing Beethoven’s late style – is amplified, demonstrating the ACO’s uncompromising focus and raw emotional power.

Schubert’s Quartettsatz captures the composer’s vast emotional depth and restless energy in a single movement before the concert comes to an enthralling close with Jaakko Kuusisto’s Cello Concerto, performed by Timo-Veikko Valve in what will mark the work’s highly anticipated Australian premiere. Rich, expansive, exquisitely beautiful and bittersweet, Kuusisto’s last completed orchestral work before his untimely passing in 2022 holds special emotional resonance. As Tipi notes:

It’s a thrilling finale to a concert that illuminates how, after 50 years, the ACO’s virtuosity, passion and artistry remains as captivating as ever.