Newcastle Music Festival's final concert on Sunday promises to be a memorable one.
Christ Church Camerata will be performing music by Newcastle First Nations composer Adam Manning and Mahler's titanic Symphony No.1 at Newcastle Conservatorium's Harold Lobb Concert Hall.
Mahler's lyrical, heart-tugging 1888 Symphony No.1 is rarely performed due to the size of the orchestra required. Sunday's concert features a new arrangement for the chamber orchestra by Camerata artistic director Dr David Banney.
Dr Banney slims down Mahler's original 15 woodwinds, 17 brass, six timpani, strings, harp and percussion into a more practical 37 musicians.
Manning's work was premiered by the Melbourne Symphony in 2025.
"It was a real privilege to have the piece premiered in Hamer Hall, and to experience such a warm reception from the Melbourne audience," says Manning, who has Kamilaroi kinship and is an artist and researcher at the University of Newcastle.
"It's very special to have the opportunity to perform it here in Newcastle with Camerata and to see the work take on a new life in a local context."
Written for strings as a response to Vivaldi's famous (and European-based) Four Seasons, Manning's Hot Season/Changing Skies contrasts long, languid chords with edgy moving passages, capturing the heat of Australian seasons.
"Mahler's first symphony is an epic, even more popular today than it was in his own lifetime," Banney says.
"Mahler composed for a massive orchestra, far bigger than we can fit in the conservatorium concert hall. My re-orchestration of the symphony allows smaller orchestras - and their audiences - to enjoy this amazing music."
Harold Lobb Concert Hall is hosting two Newcastle Music Festival concerts on Saturday, August 15: Weavers of Song, by Miriam Allan and Erin Helyard, at 3pm, and Al Andalus, by Paco Lara & Friends, at 7pm.
