Concert 3
Sunday 29 May, 5:00 pm

<p>Our Lady Of Mt Carmel Church<br>210 Richardson Street<br>Middle Park</p>

Tickets

For tickets call Astra on (03) 9326 5424, or

Morton Feldman & Earle Brown meet Monteverdi & Mahler

The Astra Choir with an array of guest instrumental performers explore some large sonic tapestries in their May 29 concert, in one of Melbourne’s richest acoustic spaces, the Carmelite Church in Middle Park.

Concert Head: 

Morton Feldman, Voices and Instruments (1972) chorus and 9 instruments

Claudio Monteverdi, Mass ‘In Illo Tempore’ for six voices (1610) on 10 themes of Nicolas Gombert / Mass for four voices (1650 posth)

Gustav Mahler arr. Gottwald, Remembrance (1880), Primaeval Light (1894), Three Angels Sang (1896)

Earle Brown, Small Pieces for Large Choirs (1969)

Morton Feldman, Voices and Instruments II (1972) 3 voices, flute, 2 cellos and double bass

Franz Liszt arr. Gottwald, Richard Wagner - Venezia (1882) 8-part double choir & instruments

Friedrich Nietzsche arr. Gottwald, Hymn to Life (1882) 6-part choir & instruments

Morton Feldman and Earle Brown, a luminous pair of ‘abstract expressionist’ composers of the late 20th century, meet with two other tidal movements in the history of sound – Claudio Monteverdi in the world between 16th and 17th centuries, Gustav Mahler in that between the 19th and 20th, along with his predecessors Franz Liszt and Friedrich Nietzsche.

Morton Feldman’s two compositions of 1972 titled simply Voices and Instruments focus in the purest way on the two sound phenomena of their title. Yet their wordless expression also opens into previous eras of sonorous collective voices, which become the vehicles for texts of jubilation and pain. In their differences and commonalities, the three eras of the concert illuminate each other in unfamiliar ways.

The Astra Choir with soloists and instruments, conducted by John McCaughey