Flirty, fiery, a little reckless…

Don Juan is an exciting, dramatic piece of music written by Richard Strauss in 1888, when he was just 24 years old. It’s a tone poem (a type of orchestral music that tells a story purely through instruments) based on the story of Don Juan, one of the most famous...

A hypnotic slow burn

This is perhaps one of the most instantly recognisable pieces in classical music. You might have heard it anywhere from Torvill and Dean skating to it at the 1984 Winter Olympics, to Baz Luhrman’s 2001 film Moulin Rouge, or even used to comedic effect on Saturday Night Live....

Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, Eiviand Aadland, joins the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra for Beethoven's iconic fifth symphony.

Beethoven’s Fifth is more than a piece of music – it’s a cultural phenomenon. And while its dramatic opening is the most recognisable hook in all orchestral music...

Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, Eivind Aadland, perform Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 6, the 'Pathetique'. The work opens in enigmatic fashion – barely audible sustained bass notes and a slow and halting bassoon theme – which perhaps foreshadows the work’s trag...

The sound of Italy.

Felix Mendelssohn was an avid traveller. He spent nine months or so in Italy in 1830-31 where he jotted down ideas that would make their way into his Symphony No. 4, ‘Italian’. Writing to his sister, Fanny, from Rome in February 1831, he commented, ‘I have once more begun to ...

Franz Schubert's Symphony No 9 in C, 'Great', initially rejected for its length and complexity, finally premiered in 1839, showcasing Schubert's innovative composition with an iconic 8-bar horn theme. The symphony unfolds through a dynamic range of movements, from the intricate interplay of strin...

Tchaikovsky’s Fifth is one of the most luscious of symphonies. It takes hold of the listener from the very first notes – a soft, slow phrase emanating from the deepest registers of the clarinet – and builds to climaxes of massive proportions. Shaping this towering symphony is Eivind Aadland, Chie...