Music of War and Peace

The ACO Collective is blazing a promising trail into the artform’s next era.

This new production Music of War and Peace is presented by the Australian Chamber Orchestra and will feature ACO Collective, the ACO’s critically acclaimed string ensemble which delivers the ACO's regional touring and education programs, led by the brilliant British Guest Director Violinist Matthew Truscott (Concertmaster of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment), in an evocative program exploring dramatic master works for chamber orchestra.

Both inspired by World War II, the two main works on the program are Bela Bartok’s energetic and folk-driven Divertimento for Strings, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s rousing Chamber Symphony. The program will also include beams of light, peace and joy with the popular Baroque work Battalia by Heinrich Biber, and the serene Fratres by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. War and Peace promises an emotive musical journey across numerous styles, centuries, countries and genres, performed with the intense brilliance of ACO’s always engaging ACO Collective.   

Arvo Pärt sought peace through stillness in a way that is almost sublime in Frates, a minimal but deeply spiritual work from an Eastern Europe still feeling the repercussions of war. That same continent, on the brink of a great conflagration but still trusting in life and optimism, permeates Bartók’s Divertimento, written in 1939 and a signature piece for the ACO. A folk melody and a rhythmic waltz serve as a calm prelude to the mark of fear and darkness in the Molto Adagio, the need to escape clear. The answer is movement, hope emerging through rushing dance that brims with life. In Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony hope is harder to find but emerges from the acceptance of peace. The internal struggles, like the European battles expressed in Heinrich Biber’s Battalia, reflect a wisdom hard earned, and now expressed in grandeur and the flowering of human spirit. 

About the Company

ACO Collective features members of the ACO alongside musicians from our Emerging Artist Program- young, professionals at the outset of their careers. With British Guest Director Matthew Truscott leading this tour across Western Australia, the result is an ensemble full of youthful energy along with the dynamism and artistry for which the ACO is renowned. 

TOURING IN 2020

Red Earth Arts Precinct, 10 September
Mandurah Performing Arts Centre, 12 September
Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre, 14 - 15 September
Maragaret River Cultural Centre, 16 September
Albany Entertainment Centre, 18 September