The Melbourne Chamber Orchestra was joined by students from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music for DuskLit, featuring Miriama Young’s DuskLit Meditations, an MCO Premiere Commission. The Melbourne-based composer is Head of Composition at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.

DuskLit Meditations, scored for soundtrack and string orchestra, is an atmospheric work. Building on her inter-disciplinary research work, Young enlisted students at Candlebark School in Central Victoria to create a soundtrack that captures not only the sounds of the surrounding bushland but also the children’s voices.

Miriama Young and the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. Photo © Lucien Fischer

Overlaying this soundtrack, the MCO strings produce gentle, finely chiselled sounds that evoke the soft rustling sounds and intermittent calls heard in the bush.

Birdsong figures prominently: the soundtrack includes a glorious magpie solo, and Young wrote an equally glorious the solo violin part, which gave Artistic Director Sophie Rowell the chance to spread her musical wings. Her resonant, free-flowing solos were a highlight of this performance. The composer was in the audience and took the stage to receive well-earned applause.

Andrea Lam and the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. Photo © Lucien Fischer

Woodwind, horns and timpani players joined the ensemble for Andrea Lam’s performance of  Mozart’s Concerto No. 211 in C major. Every bar of this beautiful concerto provides fresh delights. The soloist and ensemble were perfectly aligned; there was a palpable connection between the solo piano and the orchestra; the sublime second movement was executed with great delicacy, and the wind section provided glorious solos and crisp ensemble playing. This performance earned a standing ovation, and Lam then treated the audience to a glowing interpretation of a Nocturne by Chopin.

The Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. Photo © Lucien Fischer

Clarinets and trumpets joined the ensemble after interval for a sparkling performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s fourth symphony (‘The Italian’). The first movement burst open as if it had been uncorked, letting forth a stream of pure bubbly joy. In the second movement, the MCO’s interpretation revealed the tenderness in Mendelssohn’s score; and the fourth movement – a bouncy ‘saltarello’  (hopping dance) – moved with a dancer’s fleetness and grace.

The music was uplifting, the performance sparkled and the audience left in the best of moods.