CONCERTS 2019 MUSICAL DIRECTOR: JOHN MCCAUGHEY - ASTRA CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
CONCERTS 2019 Musical Director: John McCaughey
Astra Chamber Music Society Inc.
Astra Concerts – The Astra Choir – Astra Publications
ABN 41 255 197 577
President Astra Membership Astra concerts bring together voices and
John Terrell You can become a member of the
Manager Society on payment of FULL $50
(incl gst), CONC. $25 (incl gst). This
instruments in the crosswinds of contemporary
Gabrielle Baker
Musical Director
entitles you to vote at the Annual
General Meeting. music-making – among the varied faces of
John McCaughey
PO Box 365
Concert Prices
Single ticket prices: FULL $35,
the present and the past, in the front and
North Melbourne, VIC 3051
backwaters of the familiar and the little-known.
CONC. $20. Concession includes
Tel: 03 9326 5424
students, pensioners, arts workers
Email: info@astramusic.org.au
and health care cardholders.
Website: www.astramusic.org.au
Bookings
Concert Manager
Margaret Lloyd Tickets can be purchased online at The 2019 concert season resounds with impulses
trybooking.com or at the Astra office
Sound engineer
Michael Hewes
on 03 9326 5424
from all directions, of differing geographies
Subscription (20% discount)
Astra Publications
Kim Bastin, Allan Walker
7 concert package: and histories, from choral polyphony to
FULL $195, CONC. $110
Accompanist
Kim Bastin
4 concert package: instrumental improvisation and from
FULL $110, CONC. $65
Vocal soloists including
Catrina Seiffert, Leonie Thomson,
Book subscription tickets online: meditative compositions to early electronics.
https://www.trybooking.com/BALQU
New works from Australia and other countries
Louisa Billeter, Spencer Chapman,
Ben Owen, Lucien Fischer, Steven Please provide your address so we
Hodgson, Tim Matthews Staindl can send you the hard tickets
The Astra Improvising Choir Subscription tickets are transferable. are heard in their premiere performances, with
Director Joan Pollock
The Astra Choir a rich context of sonic resources surrounding
Conductor John McCaughey
The Astra Chamber Music Society the work of the Astra Choir.
is assisted by private donors,
Creative Victoria, the Robert Salzer
Foundation, The William Angliss
Charitable Fund and Diana Gibson.
Donations to Astra Chamber Music
Society over $2 are tax deductible.
Program details are correct at the
time of printing.
Graphic Design & Illustration
Stephen Horsley | PropellantCONCERT 1
5 PM SUNDAY
31 MARCH
Church of All Nations
cnr. Palmerston and
Drummond Streets
Carlton
Duetti stravaganti: Five of Australia’s fine instrumental players come
together for an excursion to the extra-ordinary.
playing in the Contemporary improvisation in two striking duo
formations meets the new world of around 1600
moment and from with violin and harpsichord – the era of “extravagant
consonances”, when the theatre of virtuosity and
the 17th century spontaneous expression entered Western music.
Composers include Girolamo Frescobaldi, Carlo
Farina, Louis Couperin. The concert concludes with
Erkki Veltheim & Anthony Pateras a sequence of solo improvisations, radiating from the
(viola & celesta) dramatic extemporising of the young J.S. Bach in his
Fantasia in A Minor BWV 922.
Ann Morgan & Lizzy Welsh
(harpsichord & baroque violin)
Simone de Haan & Erkki Veltheim
(trombone & electric violin)
21st century realtime composition with instrumental
fantasies between Renaissance and Baroque.
> BOOK CONCERT 1
2CONCERT 2
5 PM SUNDAY
14 APRIL
St Peter and Paul’s Church
cnr. Dorcas and
Montague Streets
South Melbourne
Polyphony from the In a little-known polyphonic monument of American
choral music, Milton Babbitt – celebrated pioneer
USA, Spain and Brazil of electronic and serial composition – explores a
wide palette of traditional choral writing in original
ways. His wartime Mass setting, heard for the first
Milton Babbitt, Music for the Mass (1941) time in Australia, is set among expressive pre-Easter
polyphony from Renaissance Spain and 20th-century
Tomás Luis de Victoria, Tenebrae Responsories
Brazil.
(1585)
with works by
Francisco de Peñalosa, Heitor Villa Lobos,
Hildegard and Pauline Oliveros
The Astra Choir and soloists conducted by
John McCaughey
> BOOK CONCERT 2
4CONCERT 3
5 PM SUNDAY
2 JUNE
Carmelite Church
cnr. Richardson
and Wright Streets
Middle Park
New from Romania Astra’s long standing link with Romanian composers
continues with works from three generations,
including world premieres from George Balint and
George Balint, Angel-Cloud (2014-18) Livia Teodorescu.
Concert poem for solo violin and choir with
Three works form a kind of solo concerto with choral
solo voices FIRST PERFORMANCE
accompaniment. George Balint’s wordless Angel-Cloud
Dan Dediu, Lux aeterna (1996) is ‘ideatically’ based on a poem by the composer, a
Concerto for solo mezzo-soprano and 8-part choir rhapsody for solo violin with choir. It is dedicated to
the Astra Choir and its conductor. Dan Dediu’s Lux
Livia Teodorescu,
aeterna from the 1990s, premiered by Astra in 2012,
Prayer of Queen Marie for the dead (2019)
is subtitled Concerto for solo mezzo-soprano and
solo mezzo-soprano, solo violin and choir
choir. Livia Teodorescu combines the two soloists in
FIRST PERFORMANCE
her adapted movement from a recent oratorio, made
with works by specially for this concert.
Radu Paladi and Sebastian Androne
The Astra Choir is joined by two outstanding guest
performers, Elizabeth Campbell (mezzo-soprano)
Elizabeth Campbell (mezzo soprano) and
Erkki Veltheim (violin) and Erkki Veltheim (violin).
The Astra Choir with soloists conducted by
John McCaughey > BOOK CONCERT 3
6RESIDENCY I
Saxophones & Choir
CONCERT 4
5 PM SUNDAY
18 AUGUST
Carmelite Church
cnr. Richardson
and Wright Streets
Middle Park
New from Holland, In the first of two concerts with guest ensembles,
Astra welcomes the prominent Dutch saxophonist
Georgia and Australia Niels Bijl, a frequent visitor to Australia for concerts
and teaching, joined by his Axes saxophone quartet of
leading performers from Australia and New Zealand.
The Axes Quartet with Niels Bijl (Amsterdam)
Recent Dutch and Georgian works are set among
Ronald Moelke, L’infinito (2018) early music from the Low Countries and new
poem by Leopardi for choir and saxophone quartet pieces for the occasion from Melbourne composers
Marguerite Boland, who grew up in the Netherlands,
Gija Kancheli, Amao omi (2005)
and Allan Walker.
with ensemble music by Johan Ockeghem and
Alexander Agricola (15th C.)
and new works for choir and saxophones (2019)
by Marguerite Boland and Allan Walker
Axes Saxophone Quartet,
Niels Bijl, Carmen Nieves, Simon Brew, Jay Byrnes
The Astra Choir with soloists conducted by
John McCaughey > BOOK CONCERT 4
8RESIDENCY II
AGON: The contest!
CONCERT 5
5 PM SUNDAY
15 SEPTEMBER
Church of All Nations
cnr. Palmerston and
Drummond Streets
Carlton
ASTRA + INLAND + Astra joins forces with Melbourne’s contemporary
concert group INLAND (artistic directors Rohan
L’ARSENALE (Venice) Drape and Alexander Garsden) to host the Venice-
based group L’ARSENALE (artistic director Filippo
Perocco), whose associated composers and performers
new solo, duo and ensemble works from Venice have collaborated with Astra over many years,
and Melbourne from including Astra Choir concerts in Treviso and Venice
ENSEMBLE L’ARSENALE: in 2014.
Livia Rado (soprano), Ilario Morciano (saxophone), Stravinsky’s late balletic work Agon (1957) for two
Igor Zorbin (accordion), Lorenzo Tomio pianos provides a context and metaphor for the event:
(electric guitar), Roberto Durante (keyboards), a choreography, a contest, a display of contrasting
Filippo Perocco (conductor and organ) musics from the performers and composers of the
INLAND: performer-composers from the three groups.
Australian diaspora, including Jon Heilbron
(contrabass, Berlin) and James Rushford
(keyboards and electronics, USA)
ASTRA: Kim Bastin and Joy Lee (pianos),
voices and instruments
> BOOK CONCERT 5
10CONCERT 6
5 PM SUNDAY
27 OCTOBER
Church of All Nations
cnr. Palmerston and
Drummond Streets
Carlton
ASTRA OMNIBUS In a lively montage of the familiar, the forgotten and
the newly-formed, pieces from the six decades of
– A resumé of short the Astra Choir’s life are placed alongside solo piano
works of diverse origins. A procession of Australian
pieces for voices and and other materials, historical and recent. Program
details to be announced.
keyboards
Joy Lee, Kim Bastin, Peter Dumsday (keyboards)
The Astra Choir with soloists conducted by
John McCaughey
> BOOK CONCERT 6
12CONCERT 7
5 PM SUNDAY
8 DECEMBER
Good Shepherd Chapel
Abbotsford Convent
St Heliers Street
Abbotsford
Unsettled choir scores This concert of unusual and adventurous American
choral works from nine decades initiates the Astra
– A terrain of spoken Choir’s third project of first-recordings with the
New York label New World Records. Starting from
and sung music Ernst Toch’s recently rediscovered speech choruses
with pioneering electronic manipulation from 1930,
1930–2011 the program sets out a landscape of heterogeneous
materials - secular, religious, experimental, tonal,
meditative, political – that have lain mostly neglected
Ernst Toch, Charles Seeger, John J. Becker, in the 20th-century artistic terrain.
Stefan Wolpe, Ruth Crawford-Seeger,
Johanna Beyer, Robert Erickson,
Kenneth Gaburo, Pauline Oliveros,
Milton Babbitt
The Astra Choir with soloists, electronics
and instrumental ensemble conducted by
John McCaughey
> BOOK CONCERT 7
14Astra Publications Astra Discography
Transcribed and edited by Kim Bastin and Allan Walker
Frédéric Chopin arr. Keith Humble New World Records, USA
Etude Opus 25 No. 7, violoncello and piano Johanna Beyer: Sticky Melodies. murchitt a daydream (CD AND BOOK)
Choral and Chamber Music 1932–43 Lawrence Whiffin & William Henderson,
(DOUBLE-CD)
Helen Gifford Merlyn Quaife (soprano), Tyrone Landau
Carol — As dew in Aprille, voice and piano Merlyn Quaife (soprano), Craig Hill (clarinet) (tenor), William Henderson (reciter),
Desperation, viola solo Miwako Abe, Aaron Barnden, Erkki Veltheim, The Astra Choir and instrumental
Shiva; the auspicious one, piano solo Rosanne Hunt (string quartet) Nicholas ensemble conducted by John McCaughey.
Parvati; Celebrations of the Apsaras, Synot (double bass), Kim Bastin (piano),
clarinet solo Peter Dumsday (piano). White and Black
Undertones of War, piano solo The Astra Choir conducted by Kim Bastin and Joan Pollock, pianos
Ancestress, viola and piano John McCaughey. Schoenberg, Second Chamber Symphony and
works for two pianos by Schumann, Ravel and
William Henderson “We, like Salangan Swallows…” Debussy.
Murchitt — a daydream, performance text A Choral Gallery of Morton Feldman
and Contemporaries “Achilles falls…”
Keith Humble Morton Feldman, Will Ogdon, Earle Brown, ASTRA CONCERT ARCHIVE I.
Pauline Oliveros, Warren Burt, Robert Carl. Choruses, song, melodrama, instrumental solo
Eight Bagatelles piano solo
Eight Cabaret Songs voice and piano The Astra Choir with soloists and and chamber music: Stefan Wolpe, Webern,
Sonata No. 3, piano solo instrumental ensembles, conducted by Beethoven, Brahms.
Sonata No. 4, piano solo John McCaughey. Soloists including Miwako Abe (violin),
Three Nocturnes, choir and piano Tristram Williams (trumpet), The Astra Choir
Three Folios for Piano 1953–1967 Move Records, Melbourne and instrumental ensembles conducted by
Sonata in C minor for violin and piano John McCaughey.
Astra 60
Five Pieces in Two Parts violoncello and piano
Michael Kieran Harvey, piano
Earliest Piano Works 1947–1952 “first and last things…”
Trio No. 2, violin, clarinet and piano Australian piano music of seven decades:
ASTRA CONCERT ARCHIVE II.
Keith Humble (1959), Helen Gifford (1966),
Warren Burt (1971), Mark Pollard (1983), Bach, Lechner, Busoni, Kagel, Hindemith,
Franz Liszt arr. Keith Humble (Trio No.4) Martin Friedel, Wolfgang Hufschmidt,
Marguerite Boland (1994), Tom Henry (2006),
Symphonic Poem No. 4 (Orpheus), Lawrence Whiffin (2011). Paul Celan.
violin, cello and piano Kim Bastin & Joan Pollock (piano duo);
Astra CDs, Melbourne Margaret Ricketts and William Henderson
Lawrence Whiffin Threnody (speakers), The Astra Choir and instrumental
Michael Kieran Harvey, piano ensembles conducted by John McCaughey.
Cat Pieces piano solo
Mots d’Heures: Gousses, Rames, Australian piano compositions by James
soprano and piano Anderson, Andrew Byrne, Stuart Campbell, Choral Scenes.
Four Études, piano solo Michael Kieran Harvey, Keith Humble, The Western Front, World War I (1999)
Sonatina, piano solo John McCaughey, Carl Vine. Helen Gifford
Poems by René Arcos, August Stramm, Wilfred
Bagatelles Owen, Rudyard Kipling, Frederic Manning,
Astra scores and recordings can be purchased at www.astramusic.org.au/publications Keith Humble, piano Siegfried Sassoon, Wilhelm Klemm, Charles
or by contacting the Astra office Liszt, Bartok and Humble, recorded at Vildrac, Edmund Blunden, Laurence Binyon,
Humble’s last public recital, at La Trobe Apollinaire, Vance Palmer.
University in 1993. The Astra Choir with solo soprano, speakers and
instruments, conducted by John McCaughey.
16You can also read
