Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Event Details

Full of aching nostalgia, cascades of passion and calm mystical lyricism, esteemed Australian composer Graeme Koehne’s clarinet quintet Time is a river is a meditation on ‘the resistless flow’ of time that bears all in its path. Much-awarded US composer Jennifer Higdon also celebrates irresistible momentum, the speed that she sees as the goal of much modern life, in a work of coruscating brilliance that showcases the agility of clarinet, violin and piano.

Flowing melody is the hallmark of Argentine composer Carlos Guastavino whose musical philosophy was simply ‘I love to sing’. His 1970 Clarinet Sonata is an immensely charming neoclassical work in which two dramatic, dance-inspired movements frame an andante full of liquid flourishes and melancholy love songs. Mozart wrote his last chamber work, the E-flat String Quintet for a mysterious ‘Hungarian music-lover’ during his last year at around the time of The Magic Flute. Opera and quintet share much energetic humour and what has been called ‘sweet gravity’.

Featured non-Australian music: Jennifer HIGDON | Dash (2001), Carlos GUASTAVINO | Clarinet Sonata (1970), Wolfgang MOZART | String Quintet in E flat K614 (1791)

Further information for this event is available online at the event's website or by phone on (02) 9385 4874 or by email to australia.ensemble@unsw.edu.au

Featured Australian Works

Time is a river : clarinet quintet (2010) by Graeme Koehne — performed by Australia Ensemble

Featured artists

• Performer Australia Ensemble