Pictures at an Exhibition

Take a whistlestop round-the-world trip with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and William Barton.

If you’ve never heard a didgeridoo played live before, now’s your chance. Joining the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jaime Martín, William Barton takes centre stage in Treaty by Deborah Cheetham Fraillon. Performed for the first time, the work evokes the depth and richness of Indigenous Australian culture.

Before reaching Australia, there’s a trip to Italy in Edward Elgar’s In the South. Written after an Italian holiday, Elgar said that he was inspired by ‘the thoughts and sensations of one beautiful afternoon’.

Then on to an art gallery, where Modest Mussorgsky acts as tour guide in Pictures at an Exhibition. Vividly orchestrated by Maurice Ravel, each movement evokes a portrait or landscape, from a clumsy gnome to the majestic Great Gates of Kyiv.