Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Event Details

The Bourbaki Ensemble concludes its 2011 season with a tribute to Gustav Mahler in the centenary year of his death. Every music-lover knows Mahler's great cycle of symphonic works, mostly scored for huge orchestral forces, often with the addition of voices. The Adagietto of the fifth symphony, for string orchestra and harp alone, is a favourite among string players (and their audiences – including Bourbaki's very first audience in February 2001!). Much less well known is conductor Hans Stadlmair's adaptation of the opening Adagio from Mahler's unfinished tenth symphony. Scored for strings in fifteen parts, it is an audacious but not an unreasonable project: in Mahler's original the strings bear a great deal of the musical argument, notably the lengthy opening theme given to unaccompanied violas. The programme also includes Elgar's "Introduction and Allegro", in which the composer sought to recapture some of the spirit of the baroque concerto grosso with his scoring for string orchestra and solo string quartet. Its typically Elgarian contrast of fantasy and vigour make this one of the greatest works of the English string repertoire. George Enescu's talent as a composer was, in his day, overshadowed by his activities as a violinist, conductor, teacher and pianist. His "Intermèdes" date from within a couple of years of the Elgar. Colin Spiers is a Newcastle composer whose "Music, like the dark husk of earth, abiding" was performed by Bourbaki in 2003. "Arc of Infinity", written in 2006, is a gentle and contemplative composition for string orchestra.

Featured non-Australian music: * Gustav Mahler, Adagio from Symphony No.10, adapted for strings by Hans Stadlmair. * Sir Edward Elgar, Introduction and Allegro for Strings, Op.47. * George Enescu, Deux Intermèdes pour cordes, Op.12.

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

Arc of infinity : for string orchestra (2006) by Colin Spiers — performed by David Angell and Bourbaki Ensemble

Featured artists

• Performer Bourbaki Ensemble
• Conductor David Angell