BY CUTCOMMON
It’s been exactly 15 years since the Melbourne Recital Centre started supporting live music — and it’s given Australian audiences access to hundreds of concerts that support the talented performers and composers across the country. It’s an extraordinary anniversary for our arts industry, and part of the celebration comes in the form of a concert series called Intimate Salon Experiences.
We sat down with the Melbourne Recital Centre to learn about some of the artists they’re showcasing as part of this series — and the team has handpicked four August events featuring local performers who will play and sing in the intimate Primrose Potter Salon.
On 1 August, Australian cellist Zoe Knighton and Iranian-Australian pianist Amir Farid (pictured above) — who are also celebrating their own 15-year anniversary of music-making as a duo — will perform music that rarely appears on today’s concert programs. Dora Pejačević (below) was a composer who was passionate about literature and philosophy, a cultural depth that she embedded in her work. She became known as the first Croatian artist to write a symphony, but she also produced pieces across many musical forms, one of which was her Cello Sonata in E minor, Op.35.
Zoe — who you might know as a Flinders Quartet founder — will play the solo in Pejačević’s work, as well as the Sonata for Cello and Piano from beloved Australian composer Margaret Sutherland. Brahms’ first cello concerto also features on this program titled Zoe Knighton & Amir Farid.
Michelle Nicolle’s 3 August concert Songs in the Key of W will shine the spotlight on women who have made remarkable contributions to the history of jazz. American music legend Abbey Lincoln was a singer and a civil rights advocate whose music and activism were intimately linked. Bernice Petkere’s songs were performed by artists as significant as Ella Fitzgerald and Doris Day, while Mexican composer Maria Grever’s What a Difference a Day Made was recorded by Dinah Washington. You’ll hear this song live with Michelle alongside other tunes including three of her own arrangements.
Michelle (below) is an award-winning vocalist who will perform with Angela Davis (alto saxophone), Jon Hunt (clarinet, tenor saxophone), Tom Lee (double bass), and Ronny Ferella (drums).
In 1823, Schubert composed a song cycle called Die schöne Müllerin. It’s based on the poetry of his friend Wilhelm Müller, and takes listeners on a journey through nature — think babbling brooks and a countryside in bloom. But it is ultimately about love, and David Greco will sing you the story.
The Australian baritone has previously recorded this work in an ARIA Award-nominated album released through ABC Classic. You may have heard him sing alongside Australia’s major symphony orchestras, but in this intimate recital he will perform with historically informed performance practitioner Chad Kelly who plays fortepiano. David Greco & Chad Kelly — Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin (pictured below) takes place on 9 August.
In the final top pick of Intimate Salon Experiences for the month, Orava Quartet plays Debussy & Dean on 30 August, and it includes the world premiere of a new work by Australian composer Paul Dean. The other half of this program features Debussy’s String Quartet in G minor — the only work the French composer ever wrote in this form.
Orava Quartet — whose players are brothers Daniel Kowalik (violin) and Karol Kowalik (cello), David Dalseno (violin), and Thomas Chawner (viola) — is the first string quartet in Australia to have released an album with Deutsche Grammophon. These virtuosic musicians (pictured below) are in equally high demand when it comes to live performance.
Learn more about the Intimate Salon Experiences 2024 series in light of the Melbourne Recital Centre’s 15-year anniversary of live music in Australia.
Images supplied. Michelle by Giuseppe Dante Sapienza; Zoe and Amir by Sarah Walker.
