Eminent young pianists Alexander Yau and Ching Pong (Dono) Ng continue to pay tribute and re-establish Nikolai Medtner as a masterful pianist-composer. After showcasing his music in their "Rachmaninoff 150th series" which included 2 expansive chamber music concerts "In Memory of Great Artists" & “Rachmaninoff and Thereafter”, they have founded the Medtner Chamber Orchestra. This inaugural concert features a blockbuster program: Shostakovich 1st Piano Concerto, Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings and other chamber music by Medtner, exploring the deep connection between generations of Russian composers.

The Medtner Chamber Orchestra aims to promote the music of Nikolai Medtner through chamber music arrangement of his small scale works, along with works by his "heroes" and most respected contemporaries with a particular focus on German and Russian repertoire, as a tribute to the German-Russian lineage of the composer. Its members consist of some of the best young talents in Sydney - they will participate and learn in regular orchestral/concerto workshops and take prominent roles in our future chamber music and orchestral concerts.

The program will begin with Medtner's 2 Canzonas and Dances for Violin and Piano, op. 43, lightly extended and "orchestrated" by Ching Pong (Dono) Ng, piano, with concertmaster Beatrice Colombis as solo violinist. Ching Pong will make his Sydney concerto debut, after featuring as soloist across the country. Under the baton of Alexander Yau, he will perform Shostakovich's Piano Concerto no. 1, op. 35 with the orchestra alongside brilliant trumpeter Elizabeth Dawson. The concerto is scored for an unusual combination of piano, a prominent and demanding trumpet obbligato and string orchestra, full of youthful playfulness and mockery - Dmitri's iconic, bizarre humor at its absolute finest. The evening will conclude with Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings, op. 48, written in 1880 - the year of Nikolai Medtner's birth. Its powerful sound scape, irresistible melodies and melancholic yearnings touches the soul of many, and remains one of the dearest and most beloved works by the composer.

DATE/TIME: 14th December, 2024 @ 7:00pm

VENUE: Pitt Street Uniting Church, Sydney NSW 2000

PROGRAM

Nikolai Medtner (1880-1851)
2 Canzonas and Dances for Violin and Piano, op. 43 (orchestrated by Ching Pong Ng)

Beatrice Colombis, violin
Ching Pong (Dono) Ng, piano

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
Concerto no. 1 in C minor for Piano, Trumpet and Strings, op. 35

Ching Pong (Dono) Ng, piano

Elizabeth Dawson, trumpet

Alexander Yau, conductor

----Interval----

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Serenade for Strings, op. 48

(Approximately 100 minutes, inclusive of a 15-minute interval)