Zelman Symphony capacity audiences of Mahler's epic Eighth Symphony - the "Symphony of a Thousand" - at the Melbourne Town Hall. In what was believed to be "a first" for an Australian Community Orchestra, the performances involved over 580 performers including an augmented Zelman Symphony of some 125 players led by Guest Concertmaster, Wilma Smith, Concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO), and featuring many guest principal players from the MSO and other top orchestras and music institutions. David Macfarlane played the magnificent organ, a 370 voice choir was formed from nine community choirs, and an 80 voice children's choir involved students
Symphony No. 3 (Davies) Symphony No. 3 (Davies) The Symphony No. 3 by Peter Maxwell Davies was composed in 1984 on a commission from the BBC Philharmonic, who gave the world premiere on 19 February 1985, at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, with Edward Downes conducting. The form of the symphony, along with those of its predecessors, owes a great debt to the symphonies of Sibelius . A second influence came from Renaissance architecture, particularly the churches of Filippo Brunelleschi. Davies explains that his use of Fibonacci numbers to proportion the symphony was modelled directly on Brunelleschi's structures . The symphony is scored