Conservatorium of Music
Thursday Concert Class
Thursday Concert Class
| Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 30 | Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943) |
| III. Finale: Alla breve | |
| Michael Li, Piano | |
| Rhodri Clarke, piano | |
| As one of the most famously difficult piano concertos of all time, Rachmaninoff performed the premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 3 with the New York Symphony Orchestra and Walter Damrosch on 28 November 1909. However, unlike the Second Piano Concerto, the Third was slow to build in popularity. The concerto was written at a time when the excesses of the Romantic were being gradually replaced with a preference for sparseness, and Rachmaninoff was well aware of this change. While the Third Concerto has its extravagances, many modernising twists are to be found, especially in the work's unique structure. | |
| String Quartet in G minor, Op.10 | Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918) |
| II. Assez vif et bien rythmé III. Andantino, doucement expressif | |
| Emma Martin, String Quartet | |
| Marrianne Liu, Emma Martin, Lucas Levin and Joshua Dema | |
| The work seems to be influenced by the style of César Franck. The result is a cyclic structure with the four movements connected by thematic material. Other influences include Borodin and Javanese gamelan music. Its sensuality and impressionistic tonal shifts make it a piece absolutely of its time and place while, with its cyclic structure, it constitutes a final divorce from the rules of classical harmony and points the way ahead. Pierre Boulez said that Debussy freed chamber music from "rigid structure, frozen rhetoric and rigid aesthetics." | |
| Sonata in A flat major Opus 110 | Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) |
| i. Moderato Cantabile e Molto Espressivo | |
| David Soo, Piano | |
| Following Beethoven's mighty Hammerklavier Sonata Opus 106, Beethoven reuses and reinvents the concept of the fugue. This fugue is built on fourths and the ideas of the fugue are heard immediately from the outset. Beethoven borrows themes from his earlier works, and in the first movement, he draws on the principal theme from his Violin and Piano sonata in g major (second movement). This sonata was composed at the same time as his 9th symphony, Diabelli Variations and his final string quartets. | |
| Etude op.25 no.6 in G sharp minor | Frederic Chopin (1810 - 1849) |
| Sean Barry, Piano | |
| This etude explores the difficulty of playing chromatic scales, trills and turns using the weakest fingers with the added difficulty of doing so in thirds. While the right-hand is required to remain quiet and legato throughout, the left-hand holds both melody and harmony and demands an entirely different tone and approach. | |
| Etude-Tableaux op.39 no.1 in C minor | Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943) |
| Sean Barry, Piano | |
| Rachmaninoff's op.39 etudes-tableaux are the last set of works he composed before leaving Russia. This particular study is typified by a relentlessly undulating right-hand which is broken only by extraordinary dynamism and fleeting serenity. As in all the etudes-tableaux, technical virtuosity isn't a goal unto itself but rather a way of achieving certain musical themes. | |
| Op.7 | Victor Ewald (1860 - 1935) |
| Edited by Empire Brass Quintet | |
| I. Allegro Moderato II. Intermezzo | |
| Tung Hoi To, Trumpet | |
| Lewis Coard-Trumpet, Kurt To-Trumpet, Isaac Shieh-Horn, Ming Yeung Li-Trombone, Barnabas Dean-Bass Trombone | |
| Victor Ewald was a Russian composer born in St. Petersburg. Like many of the famous Russian composers of that time whose career were unrelated to music, he was a professor of Civil Engineering in St. Petersburg. For many years Ewald's quintets were considered to be the first pieces of literature for brass quintet. His compositions have become a staple of the repertoire and represents one of the most extended examples of originality in Russian romantic chamber music literature. | |
| Survey: The Evolution of Music Undergraduate Education in Australia | ( - ) |
| Administered by Dominic Harvey (UWA) and Professor Jane Davidson | |
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