A-reserve $70 B-reserve $55

Do not miss this EPIC concert…

For the final Blackheath Chamber Music Festival concert of 2024 these two renowned string quartets, the GOLDNER STRING QUARTET and ORAVA QUARTET, will come together to play two glorious string octets—the 19th century Mendelssohn and the contemporary Sdraulig.

PROGRAM

Harry SDRAULIG | Octet for strings (2018)

Though cast in a single continuous movement, the Octet contains several clearly identifiable sections.

Felix MENDELSSOHN |  Octet in E-flat major Opus 20 (1825)

i. Allegro moderato ma con fuoco
ii. Andante
iii. Scherzo: Allegro leggierissimo
iv. Presto

ARTISTS

Dene Olding | violin
Dimity Hall | violin
Daniel Kowalik | violin
David Dalseno | violin
Irina Morozova | viola
Thomas Chawner | viola
Julian Smiles | cello
Karol Kowalik | cello

A-reserve $60 B-reserve $55

We are delighted and proud to welcome back our friends from the SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, who will be serenading us with two of the most sumptuous septets of the early 19th century by two of the greats—Beethoven and Berwald. Scored for clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello and double bass, they will resound as if an entire orchestra is filling the hall.

PROGRAM

Franz BERWALD | Grand Septet in B-flat (1828)

Ludwig BEETHOVEN | Septet in E-flat major Opus 20 (1800)

ARTISTS

Lerida Delbridge | violin
Justin Williams | viola
Catherine Hewgill | cello
Kees Boersma | bass
Francesco Celata | clarinet
Matthew Wilkie | bassoon
Euan Harvey | horn

A-reserve $65 B-reserve $55

A unique and delightful meander…

Actor JOHN BELL AO OBE and TOBIAS BREIDER, Principal Violist of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra—each international artists—come together to present this new entertaining programme, A Few of our Favourite Things, devised especially for BCMF24 at the request of the Festival Director.

John’s choices include pieces by Les Murray,  Coleridge, Keats, Shakespeare and a handful of fascinating Backstage Stories and Tobias will play Bach, Ligeti, Stravinsky, Hindemith and Vieuxtemps et al.

Together they will be performing and discussing some of the poems and prose, or anecdotes and musical pieces they find inspiring, amusing and irresistible…sharing memories with wit and warmth to bring you an experience that’s nostalgic, informative and uplifting.

PROGRAM

A FEW OF OUR FAVOURITE THINGS

ARTISTS

John Bell | narration
Tobias Breider | viola

A-reserve $70 B-reserve $55

An audience firm favourite…

The ORAVA QUARTET return this year as our Quartet in Residence. They will delight you with the vigour and subtle passion of their playing, in a program woven through with folk music from around the world—from Denmark and Sweden to the Czech Republic and Greece.
Schulhoff's Five Pieces (featured on the new Orava Deutsche Grammophon album) are a neoclassical glance to the past, spiked with irony, rhythmic drive, and a sense of parody… whilst Elena Kats-Chernin's For Theodora—a ‘first’ by the Quartet in NSW and the Mountains—lovingly evokes the threads of a family's Greek heritage through four generations of women. Not to be missed.

PROGRAM

Nordic Folk Music arr. Danish String Quartet (selections from Wood Works)

i. Ye Honest Bridal Couple (Faroe Islands)/ Sønderho Bridal Trilogy, Part I (Fanø, Denmark)
vi. Ack Värmeland, du Sköna (Värmland, Sweden)

Elena KATS-CHERNIN | For Theodora (2022) [a ‘first’ in NSW and the Blue Mountains]

Erwin SCHULHOFF | Five Pieces for String Quartet (1923)

i. Valse Viennese-Allegro

ii. Serenata-Allegretto con moto

iii. Czeca-Molto Allegro

iv. Tango- Andante

v. Tarantella-Prestissimo con fuoco

ARTISTS

Daniel Kowalik | violin
David Dalseno | violin
Thomas Chawner | viola
Karol Kowalik | cello

A-reserve $65
B-reserve $55

We are excited to welcome back the dynamic Ensemble Offspring.

ALEXANDRA OSBORNE, CLAIRE EDWARDES, and BENJAMIN KOPP perform with ELIZA SHEPHARD, vibrant winner of ABC Young Performer of the Year 2022.

They will play a new work, The Colours Change, which we have commissioned from HARRY SDRAULIG—the passionate, and prolific Sydney-based composer.

PROGRAM

Brenda GIFFORD | Bardju (arr. violin, flute, piano, vibraphone) (2017)

Eric AVERY | Wind of Ancestors (violin, vibraphone) (2022)

Ross EDWARDS | Ecstatic Dance (violin, flute) (1990)

Stuart GREENBAUM | Two Interludes in Space (violin, piano, vibraphone) (2000)

John ADAMS | Road Movies: Relaxed Grooves (violin, piano) (1995)

Ivan TREVINO | Empathy (piano, percussion) (2017)

Astor PIAZZOLLA | La Muerte del Angel (flute, violin, piano) (1962)

Harry SDRAULIG | The Colours Change (violin, flute, piano, vibraphone) World Premiere (2024)

ARTISTS

Alexandra Osborne | violin
Claire Edwardes| percussion
Benjamin Kopp | piano

with Eliza Shephard | flute

A-reserve $60 B-reserve $55

Travelling from Italy…

We are thrilled to present the enchanting guitar and cello duo, PIETRO LOCATTO and MARTINA BIONDI, as part of our Festival this year.
Evocaciones arises from the desire to immerse oneself in a succession of short and idiomatic musical forms that can precisely “evoke” the rich expressive colours of the main protagonists of the Spanish national school which developed between the 19th and 20th centuries.

PROGRAM

Enrique GRANADOS | Intermezzo da Goyescas (1915)

Isaac ALBÉNIZ | Granada No.1 Suite Española Opus 47 (1886)
| Cordoba No.4 Cantos de España Opus 232 (1892)

Gaspar CASSADÓ | Requiebros (1934)

Manuel DE FALLA | Siete canciones populares españolas (1914)
Seven Popular Spanish Songs: El pāno moruno (The Moorish cloth),
Seguidilla Murciana, Asturiana, Jota, Nana, Canción, Polo

Enrique GRANADOS | Oriental No.2 Doce danzas españolas Opus 37 (1890)
| Andaluza No.5 Doce danzas españolas Opus 37
| Elegia Eterna (1914)

Manuel DE FALLA | Danza ritual del fuego No.8 El amor brujo (1915)

ARTISTS

Pietro Locatto | guitar
Martina Biondi | cello

A-reserve $75 B-reserve $60

Ticket includes wine with the Goldners after the concert.
There will be a 10 minute Interval.

We are very excited to have to the GOLDNERS with us once again, but with certain sadness as 2024 marks the 30th and Final Season of the Goldner String Quartet.
They will be performing one of Beethoven’s great Razumovsky Quartets, with a particularly sublime slow movement which Beethoven wrote, apparently after contemplating the night sky and “the music of the spheres”. Each of Beethoven’s three Razumovsky Quartets contain a traditional Russian theme, as does the other featured work they’ll play—Tchaikovsky’s Andante Cantabile. 
The Goldner Variations were commissioned by AFCM Townsville for the Quartet’s 25th Anniversary in 2020, but only received their premiere in 2022. For this, the Goldners compiled 25 assorted composers’ interpretations on Beethoven’s theme, Ode to Joy—wonderfully varied and great fun. They will play all of them and …“possibly 5 new ‘babies’ to make the full 30” in 2024…

PROGRAM

Ludwig BEETHOVEN | Quartet in E-minor Opus 59 No.2 (1808)

   10-minute INTERVAL

Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY | Andante Cantabile from Quartet No.1 in
D-major Opus 11 (1871)

VARIOUS COMPOSERS | The Goldner Variations on Beethoven’s theme Ode to Joy (2020)
Joe Chindamo, Audrey Ormella, Maria Grenfell, Clare Strong, John Peterson, Paul Dean, Robert Davidson, Andrew Schultz, Mark Isaacs, Matthew Hindson, Olivia Diamant, Andrew Ford, Hayden Gardiner, Adriel Sukumar, Ross Edwards, Harry Sdraulig, Nigel Westlake, Liza Lim, Iain Grandage, Paul Stanhope, Jakub Jankowsk, Brett Dean, Tim Jayatilaka, Elena Kats-Chernin, Elizabeth Younan, Paul Grabowsky, Nicole Murphy, Holly Harrison, Natalie Williams, Carl Vine.

Join us after the concert to toast the Goldners with a glass of wine from the Huntington Estate, Mudgee.

ARTISTS

Dene Olding | violin
Dimity Hall | violin
Irina Morozova | viola
Julian Smiles | cello

A-reserve $65
B-reserve $55

An aural feast…performing four hands at the piano and improvising live.

ELENA KATS-CHERNIN is one of Australia’s foremost contemporary composers, widely acknowledged and awarded around the world—her colourful, vibrant and uplifting music featured at the opening ceremonies of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and the 2003 Rugby World Cup. And her long-time collaborator, TAMARA-ANNA CISLOWSKA, is one of Australia’s most celebrated pianists, winning prizes internationally—in London, Italy and Greece—as well as the 2015 ARIA in Australia for ‘Best Classical Album’  for her recording of Peter Sculthorpe’s complete piano works.

PROGRAM

Elena KATS-CHERNIN

Dance of the Paper Umbrellas (2013)

Sunshine Tango (2020)

Human Waves ~ No.3, 4 and 8 (2020)

Butterflying (2015)

Sandgate Sonata ~ 1st movement (2023)

Trade ~ from Ancient Letters (2017)

Unsent Love Letters (2017)

Marcato (2015)

Eliza Aria (2013)

Re-Inventions ~ 1st movement (2005)

Scherzino (2014)

ARTISTS

Elena Kats-Chernin | Piano
Tamara-Anna Cislowska | Piano