What's on at Sydney Con Semester 1 2024
Program highlights
Performers: Alexandra Osborne (violin), Theresa Leung (piano)
With the #MeToo Movement (2006, 2017) we have seen a welcome focus on contemporary women composers, a step in recognising the diversity in compositional output around the world. This recital program focuses on music by women who came before #MeToo, women of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries whose music has, for a long time, been discarded from the concert halls and classrooms. Living within the constraints of Victorian and Edwardian England, and the Gilded Age and pre-Civil Rights period in the USA, the women featured in this recital were able to forge their own musical voice at a time when women had little in the way of civil rights. Their musical pursuits, as well as their socio-political lives, make these women remarkable icons of history.
Program:
E.Smyth
- Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op.7 (1887)
R. Clarke
- Midsummer Moon (1924)
- Sonata in G (1907-09)
F. Price
- Fantasie No. 1 in G minor (1933)
- Fantasy No. 2 in F-sharp minor (1940)
A.Beach
- Romance Op.23 (1893)
Performers: Fox Chan (violin), Rachel Siu (cello), Alexander Yau (piano)
Violinist Fox Chan, cellist Rachel Siu and pianist Alexander Yau join forces in a program of Rachmaninov Piano Trios, immersing into the most soulful, melancholic, and heart-wrenching music written by Rachmaninov in his early years, honouring the great composer and his idol Tchaikovsky.
Program:
Sergei Rachmaninov (1873 – 1943)
Trio élégiaque No.1
Trio élégiaque No.2
- Moderato
- Quasi variazione
- Allegro risoluto
Performers: Ole Böhn (violin), Minah Choe (cello), Daniel Herscovitch (piano)
This varied program, which also serves as a launch of the recently released CD by these artists of music by Kate Moore, features both short miniatures (Zomer and Prelude) as well as extended masterpieces such as Velvet and Heather. Moore is inspired by the natural world, by renaissance paintings and by Eastern philosophy, and her music combines repetitive patterns combine with complex polyrhythms to forge a uniquely personal style.
Program:
Kate Moore (born 1979)
- Zomer (Summer)
- Way of the Dead
- Prelude
- Velvet
- Heather
- Lucidity: Eyes of Hands
Performers: Stuart Johnson (viola), Nicole Forsyth (viola)
Stuart Johnson and Nicole Forsyth play classical and baroque chamber works featuring the viola, and chat about how we can approach these works with students, in teaching and performance.
Program:
J.S Bach
- Sinfonia from Cantata BWV 18
- Gleich wie der Regen und Schnee vom Himmel fällt" (Just as the rain and snow fall from heaven)
J.N. Hummel
- Trio for 2 violas and cello S.46 G major
W.F Bach
- Duo for 2 Violas F.61 G major
Telemann
- Double Concerto for 2 Violas G major
Performers: Georg Pederson (cello), Phillip Shovk (piano)
A recital by two of Australia's most outstanding performers, renowned for their exciting, captivating and profound interpretations.
Program:
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827):
Sonata for Piano and Cello in A Major, Opus 69:
- Allegro ma non tanto
- Scherzo: Allegro Molto
- Adagio cantabile
- Allegro vivace
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975):
Sonata for Cello and Piano in D Minor, Opus 40:
- Allegro ma non troppo
- Allegro
- Largo
- Allegro
Claude Debussy (1862-1918):
Sonata for Cello and Piano (1915):
- Prologue: Lent, sostenuto e molto risoluto
- Serenade: Moderement anime, fantasque et leger
- Finale: Anime, leger et nerveux
Performer: Alexander Yau (piano)
Pianist Alexander Yau introduces us into the world of Medtner, Rachmaninov’s close friend and contemporary, a composer of structural and tonal complexity fabricated with long winding melodies. This recital will showcase the different works of Medtner, his Forgotten Melodies which are essentially a collection of dance and song movements, his “Skazki” (fairy tales) and the iconic Sonata-Reminiscenza. Rachmaninov’s Sonata no. 2 (Original version) will conclude the evening with a rousing finale
Program:
Nikolai Medtner (1880 – 1951)
Forgotten Melodies Op.40
- No. 1 Danza col canto
- No. 2 Danza Sinfonica
Skazki Op. 14
- No.2 ‘March of the Paladin’
Forgotten Melodies Op. 38
- No. 1 Sonata-Reminiscenza
Sergei Rachmaninov (1873 – 1943)
- Sonata No.2 in B-flat minor Op.36 (1919 version)
Performers: Evgeny Sorkin (violin), Daniel Herscovitch (piano)
Prokofiev composed his F minor Violin Sonata between 1938 and 1946, thus it can be described as a War Sonata like the trilogy of piano sonatas from the same period. This dramatically charged masterpiece is regarded by many as his greatest work. Szymanowski's Mythes and Stravinsky's Duo Concertant were both inspired by Ancient Greece, but the results are vastly different. Szymanowski here combines lush Impressionism and dramatic expressionism in a uniquely personal manner, while Stravinsky's masterpiece reflects the cool neo-classicism characteristic of his ballets Apollo and Orpheus.
Program:
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
- Sonata in F minor Op.80
- Andante assai
- Allegro brusco
- Andante
- Allegrissimo
Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937)
Mythes Op.30
- La Fontaine d'Arethuse
- Narcisse
- Dryades et Pan
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Duo Concertant
- Cantilène
- Eclogue 1
- Eclogue 2
- Gigue
- Dithyrambe
Performers: Christina Wilson (mezzosoprano), Alan Hicks (piano)
Reunited Voices is a reimagined curation of a salon concert given by singer Jane Bathori and composer, poet, and pianist Claude Duboscq. These two French artists, one famous and the other obscure, performed together in the 1920s and 30s. Despite a lack of sound recordings, there is tantalising evidence of programs interweaving Duboscq’s music with the mélodies of Claude Debussy, Erik Satie and Francis Poulenc. Jane Bathori was the dedicatée and acclaimed first performer of many works by Debussy, Ravel, Milhaud and Satie. She championed of French Art Song composition, describing Claude Duboscq as one of the few true musical geniuses she had met in her life.
Program:
Claude Duboscq (1897 – 1938)
Trois Mélodies
- Le Foyer
- Prière pour avoir une femme simple
- Complainte
À la bien aimée - Trois sonnets de Shakespeare
- Sonnet II
- Sonnet VIII
- Sonnet LXXI
La Cloche felée
La mort des pauvres
Dites-vous que la vie est ici
Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918)
Trois chansons de Bilitis
- La flûte de Pan
- La chevelure
- Le tombeau des Naïades
Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963)
Le Bestiaire
- Le dromadaire
- La chèvre de Thibet
- La sauterelle
- Le dauphin
- L’écrvisse
- La carpe
Erik Satie (1866 - 1925)
Trois mélodies
- Dapheneo
- La statue de Bronze
- Le Chapelier
La Diva de l’Empire
Don’t miss the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Choir and Brass ensemble before they embark on a European Tour.
Entry by gold coin donation
Greenway Concert Series
The Sydney Conservatorium of Music's Early Music Ensemble (EME) provides unique ensemble experience for students specialising in performance on period or historical instruments using historically informed performing practices. With members drawn from the breadth of the Conservatorium's student body, EME performs repertoire from the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical and early Romantic eras, mentored and guided by Australia's most accomplished scholars and practitioners of historically informed performance. Join us and hear the music of yesteryear in concert today.
Program:
Charles Avison (1709 – 1770)
Concertos 1-6 Op.6
- Concerto in G minor
- Concerto in B-flat Major
- Concerto in E minor
- Concerto in D Major
- Concerto in B-flat Major
- Concerto in D Major
Erin Helyard, conductor
The SCM Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Maestro Roger Benedict, presents works from Blomfield, Ravel and Rachmaninov, featuring piano soloist Michael De Huy.
Program:
Lucy Blomfield (b. 2001, current student)
That Invisible Thing
Maurice Ravel (1875 – 1937)
Piano Concerto in G Major
I. Allegramente
II. Adagio assai
III. Presto
- INTERVAL -
Sergei Rachmaninov (1873 – 1943)
Symphonic Dances
I. Non Allegro
II. Andante con moto. Tempo di valse
III. Lento assai – Allegro vivace
Roger Benedict, conductor
Michael De Huy, piano soloist
The SCM New Music Ensemble presents works from modern composers.
Program:
Michael Daugherty (b. 1954)
What’s That Spell?
Holly Harrison (b. 1988)
Bend/Boogie/Break
Paul Stanhope (b. 1969)
Wheels Within Wheels
Steve Reich (b.1936)
City Life
Sam Weller, conductor
Program:
Michael Markowski (b. 1986)
Machiavelli’s Conscience
Luis Serrano Alarcon (b. 1972)
Spanish Dances
1. Petenera
2. Zortziko
3. Jota
Joseph Schwantner (b. 1943)
In the Evening’s Stillness
Julie Giroux (b. 1961)
One life Beautiful
Steven Bryant (b. 1972)
ImPercynations
Adam Gorb (b. 1958)
Out of the Darkness
Holy Harrison (b. 1988)
Pounce
Joanne Heaton, conductor
Program:
Edward Fairlie (b. 1982)
Queen George
Xiaole Zhan
Then She Raised Her Lamp Higher
Christopher Marshall (b. 1956)
L'Homme Armé: Variations
Jodie Blackshaw (b. 1971)
Soulström
David Maslanka (1943 – 2017)
Traveler
Omar Thomas (b. 1982)
Come Sunday
Ingrid Martin, conductor