This month, he teams with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra for the first solo Australian tour of his orchestral work.<\/p>\n
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Bryce Dessner with his band mates in indie rock darlings, The National (Supplied:\u00a0Graham MacIndoe)<\/p>\n
Dessner views both disciplines as complementary.<\/p>\n
“They’re actually kind of similar,” he tells Double J. “They’re this collaborative, very human archetype of people who work together week in, week out on music.”<\/p>\n
The big difference? The National composes together whereas, with an orchestra, “I have to show up with a fully completed score. It doesn’t mean the collaboration is any less deep or important; it’s just a different process”.<\/p>\n
Then there is the grander scale an orchestra provides: “I can really dig in deeper, and there’s lots of colours to explore.”<\/p>\n
He compares it to writing poetry versus an epic novel. This month he’ll showcase his newest musical chapter: the Australian debut of his cello concerto Trembling Earth<\/p>\n
The political and the pastoral<\/p>\n
Trembling Earth was inspired by an Oslo exhibition of landscape paintings by Edvard Munch.<\/p>\n
“They were pre-World War I, probably a similar time [to now] in terms of the intensity of situations playing out on a global scale,” says Dessner, who grew up in Ohio surrounded by maple and cedar trees.<\/p>\n
“I found it so moving.<\/p>\n
“He’s painting these old oak woods \u2026 so full of emotion and tragedy.”<\/p>\n
It recalls a quote from German painter Anselm Kiefer: “There is no such thing as an innocent landscape.”<\/p>\n
“Trembling Earth is like a pastoral symphony but reflecting on the state of the human condition,” Dessner says.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t necessarily want to make a really political piece, but obviously the times we’re living in are so difficult, traumatic and full of conflict.”<\/p>\n
As the Czech Philharmonic’s inaugural composer-in-residence, Dessner wrote Trembling Earth for Russian cello virtuoso Anastasia Kobekina.<\/p>\n
He calls Kobekina a “force of nature” who can play all the classics (“Dvorak, Elgar, Tchaikovsky”) but also loves new music “like Radiohead and Aphex Twin”.<\/p>\n
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Kobekina is the concerto’s axis, animating its melodic, lyrical moments and bringing a forceful intensity that evokes the rhythmic power of Shostakovich or Stravinsky.<\/p>\n
“She’s one of the premier soloists in the world, so it’s a big deal for Australian audiences to hear her,” Dessner says. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Landscape is a unifying force in Dessner’s music.<\/p>\n
Impermanence, an award-winning work<\/a> commissioned by the Australian String Quartet and Sydney Dance Company, was written in response to Australia’s devastating Black Summer bushfires<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Set to Rafael Bonachela’s visceral choreography<\/a>, it juxtaposes beauty and devastation. Those themes extend to Trembling Earth, where calamity and renewal co-exist.<\/p>\n “The way the Earth bears witness to the effects of humanity’s bad decision-making,” explains Dessner. “And that, despite its fragility, spring does come. There’s a sense of renewal and hope in these pieces.”<\/p>\n St Carolyn By The Sea, another Australian premiere, features two electric guitars that function like harps, overlapping in waves against strings ranging from soft to frenzied.<\/p>\n Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n It was inspired by Jack Kerouac’s 1962 novel Big Sur, written while the author battled alcoholism and declining mental health.<\/p>\n “He wrote it about the west coast and the Pacific Ocean,” Dessner says. “But also mentioning Stravinsky, John Coltrane and Beethoven. It just felt vast and orchestral.<\/p>\n “This endless sky, the sense of the ocean \u2013 the orchestral sound can really do that.”<\/p>\n The concert hall vs the algorithm<\/p>\n The orchestra’s size and scope allow Dessner to translate landscape into sound. But both his classical and rock backgrounds serve similar artistic impulses: capturing emotion and the fragility of the human condition.<\/p>\n In the age of what he calls “algorithmic culture”, feeds bombarded by “AI and computer-driven music, where we don’t even know if it’s a human being behind it”, Dessner argues live music and human connection matter more, not less.<\/p>\n “The concert hall itself has become this kind of haven, this human temple of creativity,” he says.<\/p>\n “Let’s get off our phones and listen to live music, not be filming it. Just be in the space with sound, with musicians who spent their lives playing these instruments.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It’s an interesting time. People are freaking out about seeing AI artists on Spotify. I don’t think we’re going to see that in the concert hall; robots on stage playing Beethoven or something.<\/p>\n Bryce Dessner now lives in southern France with wife Pauline (aka artist Mia Tindle) and children. (Supplied: Anne Mie Dreves)<\/p>\n Dessner remains busy. He recently finished his first opera, Herakles Mad<\/a>, “which I’m really happy about,” that opens next year.<\/p>\n Next month, The National reunite for a one-off show; their first since a “good, healthy break” from intense touring<\/a> supporting back-to-back 2023 albums First Two Pages of Frankenstein<\/a> and Laugh Track<\/a>.<\/p>\n The National & Fleet Foxes are a perfect double bill. But too much of a good thing?<\/a><\/p>\n A back-to-back evening of prestige indie rock, with Fleet Foxes’ majestic folk complementing The National’s artfully maudlin poetry.<\/p>\n It is not too soon to talk about a follow-up.<\/p>\n “We never turn it off. Matt [Berninger, vocalist] sent me something last week,” Dessner reveals.<\/p>\n “We don’t have a deadline or a plan necessarily, but we’re starting to veer back towards each other.”<\/p>\n It is a wonder Dessner finds time to sustain his many creative threads.<\/p>\n “There’s seasons of things \u2026 moving calendars,” he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It can get lonely. And writing a concerto can feel like climbing Mount Everest.<\/p>\n “I told myself, ‘You know what? I do this because I love it’. I try to keep track of that \u2026 that I’m enjoying doing it. That keeps me grounded.”<\/p>\n Turning 50 prompted reflection on his achievements \u2013 and his shrinking bucket list.<\/p>\n “There was a time when I was like, ‘Oh god, I really want to write a string quartet or orchestral piece’. I’ve done quite a few of these things now, and I’m proud of the music,” he says.<\/p>\n “It really becomes a choice of, ‘What am I most excited to do?’ And keeping track of what I have to say, and enjoying that time.”<\/p>\n Bryce Dessner’s Trembling Earth, with Anastasia Kobekina and Umberto Cleriici, is at the Sydney Opera House<\/a> on September 19 and 20.<\/p>\n![\"Side-on](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/9a6545331b2343105fc6cd1ce22f8a0d.jpeg\")
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