CSO Curator's Series: Mendelssohn-Hensel, Pearson, Britten

Mendelssohn-Hensel Overture in C Major

Joshua Pearson Digital Fenua: Fakatili Te Kilog

Britten Matinées Musicales Op. 24

Benjamin Northey - CSO Chief Conductor

Be welcomed into the warmth of the Romantic era with Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel’s Overture in C Major. One of the few well-known women composers of the era, and long overshadowed by her brother Felix’s fame, Fanny was full of assurance in her own right, refusing to be overlooked. Her confidence is reflected in this bright, sparkling work, proving her father wrong that she would only be able to make music an ornament.

Have you ever wondered what a sinking world could sound like? Samoan-Kiwi composer Joshua Pearson’s Digital Fenua: Fakatili Te Kiloga Fou is a contemporary work confronting Tuvalu’s climate crisis and its move to becoming the world’s first digital nation. Fakatili Te Kiloga Fou, translated as Navigating the Changing Environment, is a powerfully charged sound world that will make you stop and think about what could be lost when our actions can’t be undone.

Benjamin Britten closes this programme with a sparkling pastiche inspired by Rossini, the flamboyant Italian composer and conductor of the late-Classical and early-Romantic eras. Rearranging Rossini tunes in witty 1930s style, Britten’s Matinées Musicales, is light, theatrical, tongue-in-cheek and is bound to have you leaving with a smile.