Concert 4
Sunday 16 October, 5:30 pm

<p>Sacred Heart Church,</p><p>Cnr Rathdowne &amp; Pelham Sts,</p><p><span style="background-color: transparent;">Carlton</span></p>

Tickets

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

“The sower Arepo keeps the works turning”

NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE AND TIME - Solo piano, choir, string trio, instruments and electronics create a rich musical network in Astra’s October 16 concert – strands of a contemporary tradition linking present-day composers in Melbourne to Schoenberg’s Second Viennese School and its formative influence from Brahms.``

Concert Head: 

Brahms, Why is light given? Op.74 - choir a cappella
Schoenberg, Inhibition & Solidarity Op.35 - tenor/bass choir
Webern, Light from the eye Op.26 - cantata for choir with woodwind trio, brass trio, string trio, celeste, percussion, piano
Keith Humble, String Trio (1953) - violin, viola & cello - publication launch
Luc Ferrari, Tautologos III (1969) - voices and instruments
Neil Kelly, Whatever is hidden, will appear (2016) - three scenes for solo piano, soloists & choir, flute, clarinet, alto sax, trumpet, horn, trombone violin, viola, cello timpani, organ - first performance, commissioned with assistance from The Australia Council
Rohan Drape, against a gleam of nocturnal light that persisted in the west (2016) piano & electronics - first performance, commissioned with assistance from The Australia Council

Concert Support: 

Michael Kieran Harvey solo piano

Natasha Conrau, Phoebe Green, Alister Barker string trio

Mardi McSullea flute - Craig Hill clarinet - Justin Kenealy alto saxophone - Tristan Rebien trumpet - Geoff Lierse horn - Robert Collins trombone - Timothy Phillips percussion - Kim Bastin piano and organ

The Astra Choir
solo voices: Catrina Seiffert, Leonie Thompson, Louisa Billeter, Ben Owen, Nicholas Tolhurst, Lucien Fischer, Steven Hodgson

conducted by John McCaughey

The impetus for the concert comes from two large new pieces for solo pianist Michael Kieran Harvey by composers Rohan Drape and Neil Kelly, commissioned with support from the Australia Council. Designed as reflections on ‘reduplication’, the two works are complementary in musical resources – Rohan Drape with pure piano and electronics, Neil Kelly with choir, solo voices and instrumental ensemble gathered around the pianist, with texts from Goethe’s Faust and Isaiah. Well-known for their work in the multi-art group Slave Pianos, both composers emerged from the environment of the Music Department created at La Trobe University by the Australian composer Keith Humble over the last quarter of the 20th century.

As the Australian composer with the closest links to the Schoenberg School, Keith Humble bridges the new works in the program with the earlier music of Brahms, Schoenberg and Webern. Humble’s String Trio of 1953 was his first substantial opus, composed in Paris during his years of study with the composer and conductor René Leibowitz, himself a pupil of Webern. The Trio is published for the first time in the critical edition of Kim Bastin, and is launched as a score in the Astra Publications series on the occasion of this concert.