The White Hat Guide to Wollongong Town Hall

Danielle de Niese with the Australian Chamber Orchestra

Danielle de Niese (soprano) has long been on White Hat's list of Significant Melbourne People. She was born in Melbourne and won Young Talent Time aged 9, then moved to Los Angeles, won an Emmy and made her debut with the LA Opera aged 15. She has blossomed into one of the hottest properties in opera, enrapturing audiences in roles like Cleopatra, Euridice and Susanna at Glyndebourne, the Metropolitan Opera and on screen.

To celebrate her professional debut in her home country, De Niese sings a specially commissioned Australian work, which also marks the centenary of Australia’s Nobel laureate Patrick White. The fireworks of Mozart's Exsultate jubilatee is contrasted Schubert's haunting song, Death and the Maiden. The Australian Chamber Orchestra (Richard Tognetti Artistic Director and Lead Violin) will then perform Schubert's masterly quartet (arranged for string orchestra) which uses that same song as an inspiration.

• Mozart Symphony K196/121, “La finta giardiniera”
• Vine New work (text by Patrick White)
• Meale Cantilena Pacifica
• Mozart Exsultate jubilate
• Schubert (arr. Tognetti) Death and the Maiden
• Schubert (arr. Tognetti) String Quartet No.14, “Death and the Maiden” (one of White Hat's Top 100 Chamber Works)

Trout Quintet & Quartet for the End of Time

A rare treat. Two of what White Hat regards as the finest works in the chamber music repetoire presented in the one concert. The Schubert Trout Quintet is full of sunshine and youthful optimism while Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time is, in White Hat's opinion, one of the great works of the 20th century. A prisoner of war, Messiaen wrote the Quartet for the End of Time for the musicians he found in the camp, premiering it to an audience of inmates and guards. “Never” he said, "was I listened to with such rapt attention and comprehension."

Australian Chamber Orchestra Principals are joined by clarinettist Paul Dean and dynamic young pianist Saleem Abboud Ashkar, making his Australian debut.The performers are Helena Rathbone (violin), Christopher Moore (viola), Timo-Veikko Valve (cello), Maxime Bibeau (double bass), Paul Dean (clarinet) and Saleem Abboud Ashkar (piano).

• Schubert Piano Quintet, “Trout” (one of White Hat's Top 100 Chamber Works)
• Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time (one of White Hat's Top 100 Chamber Works)

Our rating: Five Hats

Mozart, Handel & Vivaldi Concertos

The Australian Chamber Orchestra with Richard Egarr (Guest Director, Harpsichord, Fortepiano) and Satu Vänskä (Lead Violin)

Keyboard players, conductor, historian, and director of the Academy of Ancient Music, Richard Egarr directs this concert from the harpsichord and performs Mozart's delightful Piano Concerto No.12 on the fortepiano. White Hat suggests you take the opportunity to hear the difference it make to have a Mozart concerto played on the fortepiano rather than an overblown concert grand. Satu Vänskä is soloist in a Vivaldi concerto on the ACO's Stradivarius violin.

• Corelli Concerto Grosso, Op.6 No.1
• Castello Two Sonatas, “per stromenti d’arco”
• Biber Battalia
• Vivaldi Violin Concerto, RV190
• Mozart Piano Concerto No.12
• Handel Concerto Grosso, Op.6 No.1