Australia Ensemble@UNSW Subscription Concert, A Song Before The Storm
EVENT NOW CANCELLED
Holly HARRISON | New work (2020)
Dmitry SHOSTAKOVICH | Piano Quintet in G minor Op.57 (1940)
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN | Kakadu Variations Op. 121a (1803)
Jean FRANÇAIX | Dixtuor (1987)
Geoffrey Collins, flute; David Griffiths, clarinet; Dene Olding, violin; Dimity Hall, violin; Irina Morozova, viola; Julian Smiles, cello; and Ian Munro, piano
with guest artists Huw Jones, oboe; Andrew Barnes, bassoon; Carla Blackwood, horn; and Andrew Meisel, double bass
The Shostakovich Piano Quintet was composed as Western Europe was at war and the USSR was on the brink of invasion from Nazi Germany. This popular work is truly a ‘song before the storm’. Beethoven’s Kakadu Variations are playful reworkings of a very different kind of song: an aria from a comic opera, in Wenzel Müller’s Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu (I am the tailor Cockatoo). It was likely composed as the young Beethoven worked to ingratiate himself with audiences in Vienna. Holly Harrison will present a new work in this program, her edgy, blues-inspired music enjoying growing popularity around the world. Françaix’s Dixtuor brings the season to a close with a finely balanced and often witty juxtaposition of wind quintet and string quintet.