Australia Ensemble’s Dream Tracks

The Australia Ensemble UNSW launches its 42nd season A Fresh Start in 2021, combining several major works from the cancelled 2020 programs as well as gems by lesser known composers. It is a landmark year as violinist Dene Olding celebrates his 40th year with the ensemble and flautist Geoffrey Collins, a permanent member of the ensemble since 1983 and who first performed as a guest artist in 1980, is stepping into a new role as Emeritus Artist.

The first subscription concert for the year, Dream Tracks, features music by Françaix, Grainger, von Weber and Sculthorpe. The clarinet, strings and piano, evoke glimpses of place, culture and time. An arrangement of three English folksongs that reflect the traditional music captured by Grainger and his phonograph during tours of Lincolnshire and other English counties;  Peter Sculthorpe’s Dream Tracks evokes landscapes from the Torres Strait Island through to Arnhem Land and Kakadu, in a mesmerising trio for clarinet, violin and Piano. Françaix’s D major Trio is a masterful example of the composer’s mature style, quirky and a fiercely individual voice that is recognisably French. The program ends with Carl Maria von Weber’s Clarinet Quintet which is a beautifully crafted example of the German Romanticism to which Weber contributed so much. Its concerto-like style reinforced the clarinet – then relatively new – as an instrument to be reckoned with.

The programme: Percy GRAINGER | English Folk Songs arr. Griffiths, Young and Gershwin (2010 rev. 2021)/Peter SCULTHORPE | Dream Tracks (1992)/Jean FRANÇAIX | Piano Trio in D major (1986)/Carl Maria von WEBER | Clarinet Quintet in B flat major, Op.34 (1811-15)

The performers: David Griffiths, clarinet; Dene Olding, violin; Dimity Hall, violin; Irina Morozova, viola; Julian Smiles, cello; Ian Munro, piano

Subscriptions on sale Friday 19 February/ Single tickets on sale Friday 9 April