Couple to make sweet music
Partners in life and on stage, WA Symphony Orchestra principal conductor Asher Fisch and opera singer Stefanie Iranyi are looking forward to making beautiful music together in Perth next year.
Fisch, also a concert pianist, and mezzo-soprano Iranyi will perform a selection of songs by George Gershwin and Johann Strauss in the 2015 season, to be launched today.
In a prelude to the season launch, Perth composer James Ledger last night won the Orchestral Work of the Year award at the National Art Music Awards for his 2013 violin concerto Golden Years commissioned and performed by the WASO.
The orchestra has attracted healthy crowds to its first Beethoven Festival, which ends at the weekend, and is looking to emulate its success with a festival next year devoted to another German genius, Johannes Brahms.
Fisch said such intense bouts of music-making as a festival devoted to one composer helped whip the orchestra into better shape. "For me it is part of my three-year master plan of what I need to do with the orchestra if I want them to play a certain way," he said.
The couple are based in Germany but are sharing some rare time together in Perth with their daughter Livi, who they expect to start learning the violin next year at the ripe age of three.
For Iranyi, it has been her first opportunity to come to Perth and watch the orchestra perform.
“It’s very nice as a partner to see the audiences so happy and excited with what Asher’s doing,” she said.
“I think the concert next year will be fun. I’m absolutely looking forward to it, first of all because the orchestra is amazing. I honestly have to say I didn’t expect such a beautiful sound.”
The 2015 WASO program includes international guest soloists Pinchas Zuckerman, Garrick Ohlsson, Mischa Maisky and concerts devoted to the music of James Bond.
