Australian String Quartet Performs Moore Beethoven Brahms
Australian String Quartet. Image Jacqui Way
The Australian String Quartet (ASQ) welcomes the return of its cellist Sharon Grigoryan who has been on parental leave after the birth of her and husband Slava Grigoryan’s first child. The ASQ comprising violinists Dale Barltrop and Francesca Hiew and violist Stephen King are thrilled to be once again performing with Grigoryan as they embark on a national tour, performing a stirring program of Beethoven and Brahms and a world-premiere season of young Australian composer Kate Moore’s new work Cicadidae, commissioned by the Australian String Quartet in honour of its patron, Maria Myers AC.
Amsterdam- based Kate Moore wrote Cicadidae in homage to the driving, rhythmic song of the cicada and as a musical statement about the risks that climate change pose on such ubiquitous Australian fauna. “When remembering the Australian landscape, the sound of cicadas fills the mind. Their presence is felt through their song. Invisible to the eye, the music they make overwhelmingly floods the air on a summer afternoon.” composer Kate Moore.
The ASQ plays on four 18th century instruments made by the Italian luthier Giovanni Battista Guadagnini. The Guadagnini family was renowned for its crafting of violins, guitars and mandolins.
The programme: Kate Moore Cicadidae* (Premiere Season)/ Beethoven String Quartet op 18 no 4/ Brahms String Quartet op 51 no 1
*Commissioned by the Australian String Quartet through the ASQ Richard Divall Australian Music Fund.
Dale Barltrop plays a 1784 Guadagnini Violin, Turin/ Francesca Hiew plays a 1748-49 Guadagnini Violin, Piacenza/Stephen King plays a 1783 Guadagnini Viola, Turin/Sharon Grigoryan plays a c.1743 Guadagnini Violoncello, Piacenza, ‘Ngeringa’
