Australian Youth Orchestra | Brave New Worlds
19 July, 2026, City Recital Hall, Sydney, NSW
Pre-concert talks are often sparsely attended. Perhaps this is because many concertgoers have deadlines and are reluctant to arrive an hour early. They are however informative and add to the appreciation of the music. Bridget Hutchinson’s talk before the Australian Youth Orchestra‘s Brave New Worlds concert was particularly enlightening. Most revealing was the use by Brett Dean in his Testament of un-rosined violins to reproduce the sounds that Beethoven might have heard when his deafness was beginning to intrude. Moreover, we were introduced to clarinetist Angus Hall, and in particular to soloist Charlotte Miles who demonstrated the difference between the sounds of bows with or without rosin being applied.
Brett Dean started life as a violist being a prominent force in the ACO and then the Berlin Philharmonic. He gradually turned his attention to composing and I was lucky enough in 2010 to see his opera “Bliss” performed at the Edinburgh Festival. I thought it was brilliant and so did the critics of the “Times” and the “Telegraph” who both gave it five stars. It never caught on however probably due to its faithful reproduction of some of Peter Carey’s lurid text which was not thought to be suitable for the operatic medium.
His Testament written in 2009 focuses on Beethoven‘s famous Heiligenstadt testament in which he despaired of his rapidly deteriorating hearing and indicated how he was determined to cope with it and continue composing. The muted sounds of the un-rosined violins certainly gave a faithful impression of impaired hearing – but rosin was then applied to the bows and the music rushed headlong in a rather anguished manner representing Beethoven’s determination to compose against all odds, and including references to one of his late quartets – very moving.
Having never heard a live performance of Shostakovich‘s first cello concerto, it was strange yet uplifting to hear it twice in a month. Certainly, I detected inferences that I missed on the first hearing. This is another tortured work focusing on the repressive forces of Stalin and the Politburo. The two interpretations differed considerably – while Maximilian Hornung gave an energetic and breathless display, Charlotte Miles was more laid back and let the composer do the talking. The famous four note motif dominates sometimes accompanied by a six note figure on the woodwinds. Charlotte gave a particularly sensitive rendition of the long cadenza uttering in the finale. I enjoyed both performances immensely.
Charlotte, Melbourne born and educated has won numerous prizes here and abroad and was named the 3MBS Young Performer of 2025. She has played chamber music with the Australian String Quartet and as a member of the Berlin Philharmonic as well as the principal Australian orchestras. She plays on a 1780 cello by Joseph Hill – yes, English not Italian!
Mankind felt the benefit of the Heiligenstadt testament almost immediately with the emergence of the Eroica Symphony, surely the greatest symphony ever written and representing a huge leap from Beethoven’s ‘Haydnesque’ first two. From the resounding first two chords, the first movement rushes unchecked with at least four separate themes, rhythm and key changes. It features a prolonged austere crescendo which culminates in an amazing chord, with horns prominent, which combines all the keys of the octave scale yet doesn’t sound discordant – following the clever build up (except perhaps at the first rehearsal when the conductor assumed it was an error and asked Beethoven to correct it!).
There is no lull and after several twists and turns, the movement ends reluctantly, lasting longer than the average whole symphony. The brilliantly conceived funeral march which follows contains optimistic interludes and is never heavy-handed while the Scherzo with its dazzling introduction has a tricky Trio with three separate horn parts. The Finale is an intriguing set of theme and variations based on a theme from his ballet Prometheus, a theme he also used in later works.
I mention the Trio in the third movement – this is very difficult with its three separate and stuttered horn parts. It goes without saying that it was handled faultlessly by the horns of the Australian Youth Orchestra which was accurate throughout under the baton of Anthony Hermus who, a veritable pocket rocket, injected the orchestra with his boundless enthusiasm. He has conducted numerous orchestras in Holland, Spain, Scandinavia and the USA and I wish I could have some of his frequent flyer points! He was generous enough to give the wildly appreciative audience a reprise of the final bars of the Eroica.
