Perth Concert Hall
November 16, 2018

Dvořák’s Symphony No 9, or New WorldSymphony, is particularly meaningful to the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. WASO’s first ever performance as an orchestra, held 90 years ago on September 16th in 1928, featured the Czech composer’s most famous symphony; a performance which was described in The West Australianas ‘surprisingly good’ for the newborn orchestra. Whilst celebrating its past, WASO also chose to showcase the music and musicians of today, programming both the world premiere of Australian composer Lachlan Skipworth’s Hinterlandand Grieg’s Piano Concerto with young Russian pianist Andrey Gugnin as soloist.

WASO, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Asher Fisch, review, Dvorak New World, Grieg Piano Concerto, Hinterland Asher Fisch conducts the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Photo © Emma Van Dordrecht

Skipworth’s Hinterlandis described by the composer as focussing on “how the landscape elicits direct psychological responses through its various reflections of sound and light… taking the many unique rock formations of Western Australia as a starting point, Hinterlandbecomes a series of imagined sound and light plays acted out in music.” The types of lights and sounds one might encounter in Australia’s natural landscape were convincingly...