Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir | Evocation
18 July 2026, Assembly Hall, Scots’ Church, Melbourne
Artistic Director and Chief Conductor Andrew Wailes is the master of the swell. He knows how to get the most of that musician and emotional crescendo for maximum pull on your heart strings.
And he’s done it again with the marvellous Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir and Stefan Cassomenos and other members of the The Aurora Australis Quartet, with the concert Evocation, named after one of the many sublime choral and instrumental works featured.
The concert covered a lot of ground, mainly living composers, supplemented with some much loved works by composers of the Romantic, such as Bruckner’s Locus Iste and Rheinberger’s Abendlied Op. 69 No. 3, and Liszt’s transcription of Isolde’s Liebestod by Wagner played with such beauty by Stefan Cassomenos it took my breath away.
I adore the music of Eric Whitacre. So to hear both Sing Gently and The Seal Lullaby was a real treat, and balanced out neatly by three works that were equally luscious by Elaine Hagenberg, another American composer. Hagenberg’s setting of the Celtic blessing Deep Peace was deeply moving and beautiful.
The RMP Choir were in great form. They seamlessly melted from their choir risers into positions on the stage and back again quite a few times, which helped meet the balance and musical demands of individual pieces.
The choir rose to the complex challenges of Iain Gradage’s bird sounds in his Three Australian Bush Songs and the 7/8 time signature of Hagenberg’s Alleluia. There was a depth of expression and keen attention to Wailes’ direction which unified and focused their performance.
Lili Stephens, Sandra Ionescu and Fergus Ascot on strings didn’t just provide an accompaniment, but along with Cassomenos, performed a series of short instrumental interludes by Norwegian/American composer Ola Gjeilo, which helped provide contrast in the program.
Described as memories, the works evoked scenes from the composer’s life. These were lovely works, along with the choral work Lux Aeterna by Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds provided a certain Scandinavian flavour to the concert, a particular sound which is well known to lovers of choral music.
There was also contrast in the choral works, with Michael Trotta’s fiery Dies Irae complete with its dramatic foot stamping, Evocation by Korean composer Hye-Young Cho sung in Korean, and In All Things Love by Dan Forrest, a setting of the seminal text on the meaning of love from 1 Corinthians 13 often read at weddings (in my experience).
Artistic Director Andrew Wailes brings together popular classical music, much loved favourites and new and old gems; it’s music that needs to be heard again and deserves to be heard again. A great experience for the choristers, musicians and for us, the listeners and audience.
