Sydney Cello Quartet ‘Songs My Mother Taught Me’
The Sydney Cello Quartet commemorates International Women’s Day with an exploration of the impact of female performers, composers and muses on the cello repertoire.
The quartet will play excerpts from Elgar’s Cello Concerto arranged for quartet, a work so inextricably linked with Jaqueline Du Pre’s brilliant yet tragically short career. Learn about Beatrice Harrison’s unique performance of Dvorak’s Songs My Mother Taught Me that, in 1924, caused her and the nightingale in her garden to become overnight celebrities. Listen to Bruch’s Kol Nidrei, a signature piece of Portuguese cellist Guilhermina Suggia who was one of the first women to enjoy an international career as a cellist and hear the enchanting Song Without Words which Mendelssohn dedicated to the young cellist Lisa Cristiani.
Meet the musicians after the concert and enjoy some light refreshments in the beautiful surroundings of Christ Church Lavender Bay.
The Sydney Cello Quartet is a new and innovative group, dedicated to showing audiences what this lyrical instrument is capable of and performing little known musical gems written specifically for four cellos along with adaptations of much loved classical masterpieces.
The four cellist, Caroline, Eleanor, Ezmi and Heather, met at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2004 and have each led busy performing, both at home and abroad, ever since. The members of the group have played with the likes of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, Mannheimer Philharmoniker and Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra but a love of chamber music and a desire to showcase this unique type of ensemble brings them together twice a year to celebrate all things cello.
Tickets: $35, $25 conc, $15 students.
