MCO’s Ethereal can be heard on Wednesday 18 June 7:00pm at 75 Reid Street, Friday 20 June 7:30pm at The Twyford, Saturday 21 June 2:30pm at Mallacoota Golf & Country Club and Sunday 22 June 11am at Lakes Entrance Mechanics Hall.
In Melbourne Chamber Orchestra’s Ethereal program, globally renowned flautist Joshua Batty is set to make his debut with the celebrated ensemble. This June, Joshua will feature in a series of special appearances alongside a quartet of leading MCO players, across a variety of dates and venues.
Alongside a staple of classical repertoire, Mozart’s Flute Quartet, audiences will also experience a fresh interpretation of Prokofiev’s Flute Sonata in D Major Op 94, here arranged as a quintet for a lively reimagining of the composer’s work.
Dialling in from Sydney following a number of domestic and international performances across the first half of this year, he tells me that his first encounter with the MCO came after a university friend brought them to his attention.
“It was when I was first visiting Australia, before I got my job in Sydney,” he says, referring to his role as solo flute with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, a position he held from 2019 until late 2024.
Of his upcoming debut with Ethereal, he explains, “a large facet of what I’m trying to do is showcase the depth and versatility of the flute, especially via new commissions. Or to display existing repertoire, like the Prokofiev sonata, from a slightly reinvented angle and to openly discuss this with audiences worldwide.”
It was an arrangement by the composer Lee Bradshaw that enabled Joshua to fulfil that artistic desire of reimagining staple works from within the western canon. “It was such a gift to be sent this arrangement,” he says enthusiastically. “I immediately thought, what a privilege to perform this with a small, exceptional string group. Then we decided to contrast that with something more traditional, the Mozart Flute Quartet, which is just so perfectly crafted.”
Amidst a swathe of new works that he is commissioning for flute, Joshua’s focus on the classics – in this case the Prokofiev work programmed here – stems from an eagerness to explore pieces that offer a broad spectrum of verve and vibrance.
“Prokofiev’s Sonata is so spirited, dark and soulful,” Joshua says. “Since he reworked it himself for violin, I thought, why not see what depth we can find together with flute and strings? It’s a symphonic journey for me, one that really captures the human experience, especially considering it was written in such a conflict-ridden climate.”
Joshua outlines that there will be little experimentation with the Mozart piece precisely because of its very purposeful, beautifully assembled form: “To pair the Prokofiev with Mozart, as it was meant to be heard, in these intimate venues, I think the contrast between the two pieces will be really compelling.”
In equal measure alongside his desire to revolutionise some pieces of music with fresh arrangements – or completely new commissions altogether – there are programmed works which are, deliberately, being performed as intended.
“With Mozart, and others like Schubert, there’s just a kind of crystalline perfection in the music,” he reflects. “Not that Prokofiev isn’t perfect in his own way, but with Mozart it feels important to honour the original intention. Experimentation is exciting, but preserving tradition is just as meaningful to me. It’s about giving the flute its full voice, both old and new without anything derived from tokenism.”
Joshua Batty will be performing with the MCO’s Ethereal concert series across 18-22 June 2025, in a variety of venues. Tickets can be booked here.
By Liam Heitmann-Ryce-LeMercier