Sydney's Hourglass Ensemble, comprising leading Australian chamber musicians, promises to reveal the world of sound to you like never before. Lead by artistic director Andrew Kennedy, and joined by Andrew O'Connor of the Song Company, their mission is to show the fun and love of playing the best works of art and let the audience in on the adventure. They deformalise the "classical concert", telling anecdotes, explaining the life of a musician, and revealing the multiple layers of craft and meaning in the music. With several different combinations of instruments available, and commissioning world premieres from Australian composers regularly, the variety they deliver is tantalising.
Ewa Kowalski - Flute
Beata Stanowski - Violin
Andrew Kennedy - Clarinets/Artistic Director
Suzi Stengel - Soprano
Andrew O'Connor - Baritone
Gregory Kinda - Piano
All tickets and further information are available from the Sydney Opera House website.
A man loses faith in first world systems - offered boundless choice, yet controlled by guilt. He enters a surreal state of folded self and memory where reality seems optional. Fleeing through cold darkness in an animal avatar, he arrives at a place of torment and enlightenment - Hourglass Beach.
"I want to let the shining light of truth penetrate where only dark shadows and poisonous derision reigned. I'm recording the history of liberation from traditional, inherited slavery by a clear mirage of true freedom of the soul"
We're 100 years on from the words of the Polish composer, Karol Szymanowski. The quest for truth, light, and freedom are ongoing, against a different kind of slavery, perhaps of our own devising.
In Andrew Kennedy's new song cycle in seven movements, "Hourglass Beach", a man loses faith in the system of the first world. First he was offered boundless choice, and now he is compelled by guilt into fixing his naïve sins. In an act of desperation or insanity, he enters a surreal and rapturous state where reality is in question and he folds onto himself and his memories. Inhabiting an animal avatar, fleeing through cold darkness, unknowingly, he arrives at a place of either torment, or enlightenment - Hourglass Beach.
The Hourglass Ensemble plays with a unique spirit and honesty. As musicians they focus beyond technique, tell you a story and bring you beauty. You will be carried with them across the Aboriginal song lines to the lakes inhabited by wood ducks in Peter Sculthorpe's "DreamTracks". The blazing passion of Poland will be on show in a masterpiece for the piano by Szymanowski, and Porebski's mystical "Orient Bis" for solo flute. Finally, the depths of darkness of the human imagination are explored in Marge Smith's raw, profound premiere song cycle, "White Shadows".
Peter Sculthorpe - Dream Tracks for clarinet, violin, and piano
Karol Szymanowski - Variations in B flat minor for piano
Adam Porebski - Orient Bis for solo flute
Andrew Kennedy - Hourglass Beach for baritone and chamber group*
Margery Smith - White Shadows for baritone and chamber group*
* denotes world premiere commission