Music From The Time of Lachlan Macquarie – The Balmain Sinfonia With Clemens Leske

The Balmain Sinfonia celebrates the start of Spring with a brilliant program featuring popular classics and a ‘buffet’ of music from the times of Lachlan Macquarie.  

Featured items are Beethoven’s 4^th Piano Concerto, with soloist Clemens Leske and Saint-Saens’ beautiful Organ Symphony (No.3). The other ‘surprise treats’ – music from the times of Lachlan Macquarie – are in honour of Macquarie University’s 50^th Jubilee. 

Founder and musical director/conductor of the Balmain Sinfonia, Gary Stavrou describes the Beethoven piano concerto saying that, unusually, the piano begins the concerto alone. “This introduces a stately, reflective theme built on the short-short-short-long rhythm that characterizes much of Beethoven’s “middle period” music – consider the opening of his 5th symphony. The orchestra enters immediately with the same theme, but in a surprisingly different key. Beethoven often uses this sort of tonal ambiguity, or “wrong-key” entrances, and achieves a variety of effects with them.”

 One of Australia’s most distinguished pianists, Clemens Leske studied at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York. He has been concerto soloist with all of Australia’s symphony orchestras under such conductors as Vladimir Spivakov, Nicholas Braithwaite, Muhai Tang, Vernon Handley, Raimon Gamba and Tommy Tycho. His numerous prizes and awards include ABC Young Performer of the Year, the David Paul Landa Memorial Scholarship (Australia) and the Hattori Award (London). 

Leske has performed at international venues including London’s Royal Festival Hall and in Bangkok with Thailand’s national orchestra for the King’s birthday concert. Leske has released three discs of solo piano and chamber music and recorded extensively for Australian radio stations ABC-FM and FineMusic 102.5. He is currently Lecturer in Keyboard at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

The programme: 

Music from the time of Lachlan Macquarie

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, opus 58.

Saint-Saens: Symphony No. 3 in C minor, opus 78, ‘Organ Symphony’.

Soloist: Clemens Leske, piano

Conductor: Gary Stavrou

Tickets $25 / $20 concession at the door  or book at  www.balmainsinfonia.com or 9810 5080   Free parking in car parks W4 and X3.