this was a sumptuous banquet… to work again with ‘cellist Nicolas Altstaedt hot on the heels of the Munich premiere of A Sutured World, this time in 3 concerts with the legendary Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Matthias Pintscher. The RCO together with the Cello Biënnale Amsterdam were co-commissioners of the cello concerto and my work was presented in a cello-focussed program of Dutilleux’s magical Timbres, espace, mouvement, ou ‘La Nuit étoilée’, Matthias Pintscher’s cello concerto un despertar performed by its dedicatee Alisa Weilerstein and Ligeti’s San Francisco Polyphony on 7, 8 & 9 November 2024.
Concerts 1 and 2 were recorded by NPOKlassiek. The second performance from Het Concertgebouw can be heard as a delayed radio broadcast from 24 November and will then be available for the next 3 months at: https://www.npoklassiek.nl/uitzendingen/het-zondagmiddagconcert/9bb9a4db-9072-427d-a3a2-a94268339dd4/2024-11-24-het-zondagmiddagconcert
Coming to Melbourne in 2025…
The next performances of A Sutured World are on March 6 & 8 at Hamer Hall, Melbourne. Nicolas Altstaedt will be the soloist with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jaime Martin. This is part of my ‘Composer-in-Residence’ role with the MSO concentrated on activity in March-April 2025. April sees two concerts forming the Metropolis Festival with the theme ‘Composing Australia’ which I’ve co-curated with conductor Benjamin Northey. The festival program includes a newly commissioned Guzheng concerto from Jessica Wells featuring soloist Mindy Meng Wang as well as music by Holly Harrison, Ella Macens, Fiona Hill, Peggy Polias, Matthew Hindson and William Barton, and my work Sappho/ Bioluminescence (from Annunciation Triptych).
Liza Lim 