I’m thrilled to report that I’m writing a new work for the Australia Ensemble’s just-announced 2020 Season. I’m tremendously excited to work with these amazing players. I know it’s a whole year away, but hope to see you there!
A Song Before the Storm
Saturday October 24, 8.00pm
Sir John Clancy Auditorium
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)
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.