8pm, Saturday 25 July
Beethoven Symphony No.8 in F major, op. 93
Beethoven Symphony No.9 in D minor, op. 125 Choral
Soloists: Aivale Cole, Elizabeth Campbell, Henry Choo, Douglas McNicol
CONDUCTOR: John Nelson
Distinguished American conductor John Nelson returns to conduct the orchestra in 2009, in the conclusion of this exciting Beethoven Cycle. John Nelson is renowned for his work as Music Director of L’Ensemble orchestral de Paris, a Beethoven-sized chamber orchestra.
This ensemble has established itself as a major force worldwide, and its recording of the complete Beethoven Symphonies has been hailed internationally. In America he has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Cleveland. In Europe, he has conducted the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Dresden Staatskappelle, Gurzenich Orchestra in Cologne, the Academia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and the orchestras of Oslo, Rotterdam, and Orchestre de Paris. He has appeared with all of Australia’s symphony orchestras. Click here for a full page biographhy of John Nelson.
SOLOIST: Herbert Schuch
With the Beethoven-concertos 1,4,5 German pianist Herbert Schuch debuts with the Australian Youth Orchestra in July 2008 under John Nelson. In February 2009 he will play Tchaikovsky N° 1 on the Japan-tour of the Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna under Dmitri Kitaenko. Last year he debuted at the Salzburger Festspiele with the Wiener Philharmoniker under Riccardo Muti, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Yannick Nezet-Seguin, at the Wiener Musikverein under Pierre Boulez, at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt under Anu Tali.
Herbert Schuch won widespread acclaim by winning three international competitions within one year. In June 2004 he won the Casagrande Competition in Italy, where he was also awarded the Special Jury Prize; in April 2005 he won the "London International Piano Competition", where he debuted with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall in the finale. In June 2005 he won first prize at the International Beethoven Competition Vienna after performing Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto at the Wiener Musikverein under Bertrand de Billy.
Herbert Schuch has already performed with numerous orchestras such as the Orchestre National de Lyon, London Mozart Players, Camerata Salzburg, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Deutsche Radiophilharmonie, Staatskapelle Halle, Münchner Kammerorchester, Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin, Münchner Symphoniker, and collaborated with conductors such as Lawrence Foster, Christoph Poppen and Pietari Inkinen. He has played at the Kissinger Sommer, Beethovenfest Bonn, Konzerthaus Dortmund, KKL Luzern, Tonhalle Zürich, Wiener Konzerthaus, Parco della Musica Rom as well as the “International Keyboard Festival” in New York.
In September 2005, OehmsClassics released his debut CD of Schumann and Ravel, which won critical acclaim in the “Spiegel” and was awarded Gramophone’s “Editor’s Choice” in June 2006. In 2007 his second solo-CD with Schubert and Lachenmann works and a duo-CD with violinist Mirijam Contzen were released by OehmsClassics.
His chamber music partners to date include the violinists Julia Fischer, Mirijam Contzen and Alina Pogostkin, the cellists Prof. Julius Berger and Sebastian Klinger as well as the Szymanowski, Henschel-, und Ysaye-Quartets.
Herbert Schuch was born in Temeschburg (Rumania) in 1979; his family background is German and Hungarian. After his first piano lessons with Prof. Maria Bodo, the family moved to Germany in 1988 where he has resided since. He continued his music studies under Kurt Hantsch followed by Prof. Karl-Heinz Kämmerling at the Salzburger Mozarteum. Lately he has also been working closely with Alfred Brendel for some time. His passion for Mozart, Beethoven und Schubert led to several years training in pianoforte with Prof. Siegbert Rampe.
Concert Presenting Partner