Sydney Symphony Fellows perform Last Flight of Saint-Ex
This is a newly revised version for the 2025 SSO Fellows in celebration of Australian Music Month
2025 Sydney Symphony Fellows Concert
Thursday 18 September, 6:30pm
Showcasing an All-Australian program curated and conducted by Richard Mills, including Beaugeais’ Last Flight of Saint-Ex for oboe and string quartet.
*This concert will be recorded by ABC Classic.
Venue: ABC Studios
Eugene Goossens Hall
Sydney.
Concert info:
https://www.sydneysymphony.com/learning/sydney-symphony-fellowship/fellows-concerts#
Official Program Note (free to use for concerts)
Last Flight of Saint-Ex for oboe and string quartet was originally composed for a premiere performance by the 2008 Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellows – my very first chamber ensemble piece! Since then, this piece has been performed by a variety of different instrumentation: from woodwind and piano trios, string quintet, sax quartet to 30 saxophones at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb.
This is a newly revised version for 2025 SSO Fellows in celebration of their Australian Music Month concert at Eugene Goossens Hall, curated and conducted by Richard Mills and broadcast on ABC Classic.
Last Flight of Saint-Ex is inspired by the famous French writer and pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944) – also known as Saint-Ex and author of the international bestseller Le Petit Prince. In 1944, Saint-Exupéry’s plane crashed in the South of France. Sixty years later, wreckage of the plane was discovered off the coast of Marseille. Though evidence indicates that his plane had likely been shot down by an enemy fighter, the cause of his death still remains a mystery.
A fast, pulsating, rhythmic style governs this work. A feeling of urgency and unrest is created by complex syncopated rhythms, irregular metres and erratic dynamic changes. In the slow middle section, a feeling of sadness, pathos and grief is conveyed by a haunting cello solo. The final section builds to a loud and dramatic climax with rapid motivic figures and thick rippling textural sound mass effects, showcasing the technical capabilities of all players.
© August 2025 by Katia Beaugeais
Score sample pages coming soon…
