Four of Melbourne’s fine contemporary pianists are brought together in this concert, each performing solo as well as 4-piano works. Opening with Morton Feldman’s rarely-heard Piece for 4 Pianos from 1958, the concert re-groups the four instruments in different physical constellations and musical styles for three new eight-hand works, each created for this concert, and originating in three different countries.
 
Outside In, from New York-based composer Andrew Byrne, draws new sonic and rhythmic energies from 2 amplified pianos, each of the 4 players with one hand on the keys and the other inside the instrument. A Serenade from Geelong composer Kym Dillon surrounds the audience from widely-dispersed instruments, while Riccardo Vaglini encloses the four players as actors in a tight square of keyboards, within which they circulate. His political-poetic work Erzurum was first written following a visit to the Middle East in 2003. He returns to Melbourne from Venice to realize a new version with the players for this concert.
 
Each composer of the premiered works is also represented by a solo work, and the program is further enriched by Lawrence Whiffin’s final work, the Sonata for two pianos, a recent solo piece from Bucharest,Viii–The Living by Mihai Măniceanu, and Helen Gifford’s latest composition in her 80th year,Undertones of War, which is launched in this concert as a published score for Astra Publications.