Camerata – Compassion with Lior (Toowoomba)

Beethoven’s Grand Fugue has been termed “a great artistic testament to the human capacity for meaning” and provides a gripping Season 2021 opening work. You will be transported to a chapel where macho bullfighters pray for their lives ahead of their encounters in the Madrid arena, a scene that inspired Turina to write his sensual The Bullfighter’s Prayer. Steve Reich’s 1994 Duet commemorates the humanity of the great violinist, Yehudi Menuhin and is dedicated to ideals of international understanding which Yehudi practised throughout his life. In a world premiere commissioned during the COVID-19 pandemic, Queensland composer John Rotar’s Beyond the Front Door provides a poignant recollection of isolation in 2020. Following interval, we welcome a special guest artist, Australian singer/songwriter Lior, for a performance of Compassion, the song cycle he wrote together with Australian composer, Nigel Westlake. The words reach out across the religious divide between Islam and Judaism in a remarkable and authentic celebration of compassion.

PROGRAM

Beethoven                                Grosse Fugue (Grand Fugue), Op.133

Steve Reich                              Duet for Two Violins and String Orchestra

Joaquín Turina                          La oración del torero (The Bullfighter’s Prayer), Op.34

John Rotar                                Beyond the Front Door (World Premiere)

Nigel Westlake/Lior                    Compassion – Symphony of Songs for tenor and chamber orchestra

FEATURING

Lior, vocals