BY CUTCOMMON
Let’s face it — by November, most of us are either in holiday mode, or wrapping up our end-of-year projects so we can start thinking about our 2025 #goals.
Either way, we all need some live music to get us through that final stretch of the year. And we’ve collaborated with Melbourne Recital Centre to handpick four intimate concerts that’ll nourish your spirits as you prepare to bid farewell to the mammoth year that was 2024.
Penny Quartet – INPOUR
In their Intimate Salon Experiences, the musicians of Penny Quartet (above, and below) will present three works that align with what they love to do: indulge in the core quartet repertoire while navigating their “urge to explore less-chartered territory”.
First, they’ll present String Quartet No.1 by Eleanor Alberga. The Jamaican-born British composer has written music since she was 10 years old, then went on to build the music career of a lifetime that awarded her an OBE for Services to British Music.
Penny Quartet will also present a new work by Kym Dillon, an award-winning composer-pianist from Victoria whose works you might even have heard in previous events at the Melbourne Recital Centre. (Or in Canada, Romania, and Italy, if you’ve experienced some live Australian music over that way.) This concert wraps up with Shostakovich’s String Quartet No.11 in F minor.
Hear it all at 7pm, November 1 in the Primrose Potter Salon.
Duo Eclettico & Helen Morse – A Trillion Tiny Awakenings
Helen Morse is not a musician. She’s an Australian actor, and she’s going to narrate the world premiere of Linda Kouvaras’ Gwen Harwood Poems. The Australian poet of its namesake wrote hundreds of works, and was considered subversive for her time. As for the music itself, you’ll hear it performed by saxophonist Justin Kenealy and pianist Coady Green.
These two players make up Duo Eclettico, and on their program you’ll also hear Ned Rorem’s Picnic on the Marn, and Cheryl Durongpisitkul’s A Trillion Tiny Awakenings that also pays homage to an Australian poet – Candy Royalle.
Hear this poetry-inspired program at 7pm, November 2 in the Primrose Potter Salon.
Qais Essar – Worlds within Worlds
Qais Essar (below) is a composer who performs classical music from Afghanistan – a country in which music has been outlawed in public and private, and musicians have been persecuted.
In the Melbourne Recital Centre, Qais will give a special performance featuring the stringed rabab – the national instrument of Afghanistan — alongside Melbourne tabla player Pranav Ramji. Expect music that is informed by Qais’ range of styles spanning American rock, chamber music, and Afghan folk music.
Hear this program at 6pm, November 6 in the Primrose Potter Salon.
Affinity Quartet – Schubert’s Death & the Maiden
While this program features a performance of Schubert’s String Quartet No.14 in D minor – his famous composition exploring the struggles of life and his own mortality – we are just as interested in the new Australian work on the program.
The musicians of Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition-winning Affinity Quartet (below, and featured) will premiere a new piece from Alice Chance. It’s called Gifts from a Thieving Bluebird, and it was commissioned by Musica Viva Australia.
Hear this new Australian music at 7pm, November 19 in the Primrose Potter Salon.
Visit the Melbourne Recital Centre website to explore the full list of Intimate Salon Experiences you can still attend before the end of 2024.
Images of Affinity Quartet by Kristoffer Paulsen.
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