The programme
The performance opens with Mozart's Divertimento in D major, K. 136, a short three-movement work the seventeen-year-old Mozart wrote for string ensemble, frequently performed as an opener for chamber programmes of this kind. The Divertimento runs roughly twelve minutes.
The second work is Britten's Simple Symphony for string orchestra, written from material Britten had composed as a teenager and reworked in his early twenties. The Simple Symphony has become a staple of the chamber orchestra repertoire and the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra has performed it in this configuration on multiple recent tours.
After interval the centrepiece of the programme is Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23, with David Fung as soloist. Fung is a former MCO artist-in-residence and has a long-standing partnership with the orchestra, including the recording of the complete Mozart concertos that the MCO completed across 2018 and 2019. The Piano Concerto No. 23 is one of the late Mozart concertos, written in the same year as the C minor concerto K. 491, and is one of the works most associated with Fung's recent recital programmes.
About the performers
The Melbourne Chamber Orchestra is one of the major chamber orchestras of Australia, with a long touring history through regional Victoria. David Fung is an Australian pianist with significant international recital and recording credits and a long-standing relationship with the MCO. The Playhouse has hosted the MCO across the past decade as part of the orchestra's regional Victorian touring programme.
Booking
One performance in the Main Theatre. Tickets through the box office. Programme notes are included with the ticket and a pre-concert talk by the programming manager runs in the foyer for thirty minutes before curtain.