Northern Rivers Symphony Orchestra presents a winter delight
By Madeleine Murray for Tweed Valley Weekly
THE NORTHERN RIVERS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA will present a varied and thrilling program at the Tweed Heads Civic Centre on Sunday afternoon, July 27.
Conducted by the dynamic Italian-Australian Marco Bellasi, and starring his brilliant wife Ayesha Gough on the piano, Winter Delights features the Leonore Overture No 3 by Beethoven, Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, and Michael Haydn’s Requiem, with the Coolamon Singers Choir.
The talented conductor and incandescent pianist were married on January 8 this year. Perhaps as a homage to their wedding, the first half of this concert embraces the theme of marriage and artistic inspiration.
Beethoven’s Leonore overture No 3 was written in 1806 for his opera Leonore, later renamed Fidelio, a work that celebrates the greatness of marriage.
“Edvard Grieg wrote his piano concerto in 1868, a year after marrying his wife Nina Hagerup, and the birth of their child Alexandra; the new family bliss inspired Grieg to write this wonderful piano concerto,” conductor Marco Bellasi told The Weekly.
“I’m very happy to be performing this first half of the concert in the year of my wedding to the great and beautiful pianist Ayesha Gough. Performing the Grieg piano concerto together will be something truly special. I’m wondering whether to perform the first half in my groom attire, and relive through music the most beautiful and important moment of my life, when I got married to Ayesha.”
Ayesha grew up in Murwillumbah, and she has performed and won awards all over the world.
“I’m very happy to have had the chance to learn the entire Grieg Concerto for this concert, as I played only the first movement as a little girl in the Murwillumbah Eisteddfod,” she told The Weekly.
“What a piece it is! So richly romantic, infused with Norwegian folk dances and memorable melodies. In some ways I feel the Grieg is overlooked as the ‘easier’ concerto on piano competition lists, when it is really such a rewarding concerto and deserves reverence.”
During Haydn’s Requiem, Marco will be thinking of his late father Massimo who passed away last year.
“He and my mother Patricia have been my greatest supporters and my greatest sponsors. My mother is in the soprano section of the choir, so our minds and our thoughts will go to him.”
Winter Delights is on at 2:30pm, Sunday July 27, at the Tweed Heads Civic Centre, corner Brett and Wharf St, Tweed Heads. Tickets at nrso.com.au, or Murwillumbah Music. Available at the door if not sold out. Enquiries 0478 012 324