Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Event Details

The first Bourbaki Ensemble concert for 2011 features the premiere performance of Melbourne composer David Keeffe's newly written concerto for saxophone and orchestra. Each of its four movements bears a title taken from the World War I poetry of Wilfred Owen; the mood of the poems is expressed in sounds which are often sparse and fragile, with soloist and strings being joined by the percussive textures of timpani and piano.

We are delighted to welcome back Jason Xanthoudakis for his first performance with Bourbaki since 2007. Pavel Haas's Study for String Orchestra was composed during the World War II in the Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt. It is astonishing that a composer could have written anything at all under such conditions, let alone a vital and energetic movement such as this.

Ernest Bloch's Concerto Grosso was written between the wars and consists of two strongly marked and rhythmic outer movements which frame two more lyrical ones. A complete contrast is provided by Johanna Selleck's Tapestry II: Mellow, written as a result of the composer's receiving the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award in 2006.

Performers: The Bourbaki Ensemble David Angell, conductor Jason Xanthoudakis, saxophone

Featured non-Australian music: Haas, Study for Strings; Bloch, Concerto Grosso No.1

Further information for this event is available online at the event's website or by phone on 0433 074 322 or by email to david.355.113@gmail.com

Featured Australian Works

Featured artists

• New work by David Keeffe
• Performer Bourbaki Ensemble