Past Repertoire and Programmes
Here is a catalogue of past Bourbaki Ensemble concerts. Programme notes are available in PostScript or PDF: the PS looks better but may not be accessible to everyone. Both formats are designed for an A5 page so we suggest you resize your viewer accordingly. Comments on the programmes are welcome!
If you couldn't be bothered scrolling down the page you can jump directly to 2001 or 2002 or 2003 or 2004 or 2005 or 2006 or 2007 or 2008.
Concert 1, music for strings and harp, February 2001. A commitment to programming Australian music begins with our very first performance (and is still continuing!) There follows one of the great pieces of the solo harp repertoire, and then Mahler's glorious song for strings and harp, extracted from his turbulent fifth symphony. To conclude, one of the recognised masterpieces of the literature for string orchestra.
- Peter Sculthorpe, Sonata for Strings No.3, "Jabiru Dreaming".
- Claude Debussy, Danses sacrée et profane for harp and strings (Verna Lee, harp).
- Gustav Mahler, Adagietto, from Symphony No.5 in C sharp minor.
- Antonín Dvorák, Serenade for Strings in E major, Op.22.
For programme notes, details of performers and more, choose PS or PDF.
Concert 2, music for string orchestra, August 2001. Popular short pieces for strings by Holst, Barber and Grieg, and an attractive concerto, sometimes vigorous, sometimes plaintive, by Margaret Sutherland (1897–1984). The concert finishes with the intense and tragic Chamber Symphony arranged by Rudolf Barshai from the eighth string quartet of Dmitri Shostakovich.
- Gustav Holst, St. Paul's Suite.
- Samuel Barber, Adagio for Strings, Op.11.
- Margaret Sutherland, Concerto for Strings.
- Edvard Grieg, Two Elegiac Melodies, Op.34.
- Dmitri Shostakovich, Chamber Symphony, Op.110a.
The programme for concert 2 is
here in PostScript and
here in PDF.
Concert 3, music for strings and percussion, March 2002. The addition of percussion to the string orchestra allows a composer to create a variety of unusual and fascinating sounds. In this concert we perform works ranging from Mozart's vibrant Serenata for strings and timpani to Sibelius' magical suite and Sculthorpe's memorial to his father. Also on the programme are string serenades from the English and Czech schools of composition.
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Serenata Notturna K239 for strings and timpani.
- Sir Edward Elgar, Serenade for Strings in E minor, Op.20.
- Peter Sculthorpe, Irkanda IV for solo violin, strings and percussion (Margaret Howard, violin).
- Jean Sibelius, Rakastava, Op.14, for strings, timpani and triangle.
- Josef Suk, Serenade for Strings in E flat major, Op.6.
For more information please read the programme: PS or
PDF.
Film soundtrack, Compost Monster, April 2002. The Standing Committee presents Compost Monster, a not-entirely-serious horror film. Directed by Genevieve Mortiss, the movie is set in suburban Sydney and demonstrates the dire consequences which may flow from discarding meat scraps in the compost heap... Musical concepts by The Standing Committee, orchestrated by David Angell. Soundtrack recorded in St. Stephen's Church, Newtown, performed by the Bourbaki Ensemble and conducted by David Angell. The world premiere of Compost Monster took place on Tuesday 7 May 2002 at the Valhalla Cinema, Glebe. In August the film was screened as part of the Portobello Film Festival in London. Here's a link to scenes from the movie.
Concert 4, dance and verse for strings, July 2002. A programme of twentieth century music, built around three works with literary connections. Britten's justly famous Serenade sets texts by six different poets; Nigel Butterley's Goldengrove was inspired by Gerard Manley Hopkins' Spring and Fall; the two short pieces for strings by William Walton originated as part of the score for Olivier's film of Shakespeare's play. The concert begins and ends with "dance" episodes: Eastern European from Bartók, and French from Peter Warlock.
- Belá Bartók, Rumanian Dances.
- Benjamin Britten, Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (John Napier, tenor; Graham Nichols, horn).
- Nigel Butterley, Canzona, from Goldengrove.
- William Walton, Two Pieces for Strings, from the film music for Henry V.
- Peter Warlock, Capriol Suite.
Further details available
here (PS) and
here (PDF).
Concert 5, Baroque and beyond: music for strings, November 2002. The third of Bach's magnificent Brandenburg Concertos precedes two seasonally appropriate Baroque works, while Villa-Lobos' homage to Bach in Brazilian style is matched with Respighi's loving look at old Italian music. Colin Brumby's piece for strings and harpsichord was inspired by Shakespeare's poem of the same name.
- Johann Sebastian Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No.3.
- Arcangelo Corelli, Concerto Grosso Op.6 No.8, "Christmas Concerto".
- Antonio Vivaldi, Summer, from The Four Seasons (Valerie Gutenev, violin).
- Colin Brumby, The Phoenix and the Turtle.
- Heitor Villa-Lobos, Bachianas Brasileiras No.9 for string orchestra.
- Ottorino Respighi, Ancient Airs and Dances, third suite.
Click here for programme notes and misleading Bourbaki stories in
Postscript or
PDF.
Concert 6, Eastern European classics for strings, February 2003. Tchaikovsky's Serenade is one of his most joyful compositions, and is counterpointed by Dvorák's elegiac Nocturne. Weiner and Lutoslawski are represented by works based on their national musical traditions, while Brisbane composer Betty Beath's intense Lament commemorates the suffering occasioned by recent events in Kosovo.
- Leó Weiner, Divertimento on Old Hungarian Dances.
- Betty Beath, Lament for Kosovo.
- Witold Lutoslawski, Five Polish Folk Melodies.
- Antonín Dvorák, Nocturne in B major.
- Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, Serenade for Strings.
The concert programme is available here in PostScript, and
here in PDF.
Concert 7, music for recorder and strings, May 2003. A programme featuring one Baroque and one modern recorder concerto, and the world premiere performance of Colin Spiers' deep and evocative composition. We begin with Purcell's music for a Restoration tragedy and end with Biber's startling and sometimes eccentric battle suite. The recorder concerto by Arnold Cooke is also receiving its first performance in Australia.
- Henry Purcell, Incidental music from Abdelazer.
- Arnold Cooke, Concerto for treble recorder and strings (Karyn Ashley, recorder).
- Antonio Vivaldi, Concerto for sopranino recorder and strings (Karyn Ashley, recorder).
- Colin Spiers, Music, like the dark husk of earth, abiding.
- Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Battalia.
Click (
PS or
PDF) for programme notes and further details.
Concert 8, three centuries of music for strings, August 2003. A concert given at The Garrison (Holy Trinity) Church in The Rocks as part of the church's "Concerts by Candlelight" series, and consisting of shortish, mostly well-known pieces.
- Antonio Vivaldi, Concerto for four violins.
- Georges Bizet, Adagietto from L'Arlesienne.
- Percy Grainger, Irish Tune from County Derry.
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Divertimento K138.
- Arvo Pärt, Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten, for strings and bell.
- Benjamin Britten, Simple Symphony.
The concert programme in its original printed form is not available, but programme notes can be read in PS or PDF.
Concert 9, music for guitars and strings, October 2003. The programme is built around two solo pieces and a double concerto for guitars. We begin with a short and energetic composition by Warwick Pulley, concertmaster of the Bourbaki Ensemble, and include a delightful suite by Gustav Holst. Alan Rawsthorne's Concerto for String Orchestra boasts a striking and powerful opening and continues with music which is by turns turbulent, elegiac, and serene.
- Warwick Pulley, Delta-H.
- Antonio Vivaldi, Concerto for Two Guitars and Strings (Raffaele and Janet Agostino, guitars).
- Gustav Holst, Brook Green Suite.
- Richard Charlton, Serenade for Guitar and Strings (Janet Agostino, guitar).
- Máximo Pujol, Suite Buenos Aires (Raffaele Agostino, guitar).
- Alan Rawsthorne, Concerto for String Orchestra.
Read the concert programme in PS or PDF.
Concert 10, string music from Britain and beyond, March 2004. Elgar's Introduction and Allegro is one of the great works in the English tradition of music for strings, while John Woolrich's meditative Ulysses Awakes is a recomposition of motives from Monteverdi's opera The Return of Ulysses. The St. Kentigern Suite by Scottish composer Thomas Wilson has been described as "dazzling" and "beautifully written for strings". We also include two "foreign" compositions having some kind of British connection: an Australian setting of English folk songs and a German piece written in memory of King George V.
- Sir Edward Elgar, Introduction and Allegro for Strings.
- John Woolrich, Ulysses Awakes, for viola and strings (Angela Lindsay, viola).
- David Stanhope, String Songs.
- Paul Hindemith, Trauermusik, for viola and strings (Angela Lindsay, viola).
- Thomas Wilson, St. Kentigern Suite.
Read the programme notes from this concert by clicking here (PS – PDF).
Concert 11, a Mediterranean odyssey for string orchestra, July 2004. Our Mediterranean concert begins with an Australian composition! Colin Brumby's delightful suite comprises settings of folk music from Turkey, Crete and Cyprus. We also perform two short Spanish compositions, a setting (in Italian!) of words by Shelley, and a twentieth-century French symphony for string orchestra.
- Colin Brumby, Mediterranean Suite.
- Joaquín Rodrigo, Two Andalusian Miniatures.
- Ottorino Respighi, Il Tramonto (Camille Mercep, soprano).
- Joaquín Turina, La Oracion del Torero.
- Jean Rivier, Symphony No.3.
Programme notes can be read or downloaded in PostScript or PDF format.
Concert 12, young composers writing for strings, October 2004. Works written by composers ranging in age from the thirteen-year-old Mendelssohn to the (relatively) elderly Scriabin, all of twenty seven when he wrote his Andante for strings.
- Robert Davidson, Dodecahedron.
- Leoš Janácek, Idyll for string orchestra.
- Alexander Scriabin, Two Pieces for String Orchestra: Scherzo and Andante.
- Felix Mendelssohn, String Symphony No.9 in C major.
The concert programme is available as PS or
PDF.
Concert 13, music for clarinet and strings, February 2005. One of Grieg's best loved compositions, a poignantly beautiful English clarinet concerto, and the serenely elegiac Cantilena Pacifica of Richard Meale. The programme begins with Frank Bridge's intensely sorrowful Lament, commemorating a nine-year-old victim of the sinking of the Lusitania during the First World War.
- Frank Bridge, Lament for Strings.
- Gerald Finzi, Clarinet Concerto, Op.31 (Nick Carey, clarinet).
- Richard Meale, Cantilena Pacifica for string orchestra.
- Edvard Grieg, Holberg Suite.
Read all about Bourbaki and Isaac Nathan! – in PS or
PDF.
Concert 14, ocean music for string orchestra, September 2005. We explore the many moods of the ocean, from Peter Sculthorpe's Songs of Sea and Sky, inspired by the bright and sunny waters of the Torres Strait, to the dark Debussyan nocturne of Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu. Vasco Martins' symphony for strings depicts the broad swell of the Atlantic which dominates his home in the Cape Verde Islands, while Grace Williams' delightful suite expresses the calm and stormy moods of the seas bordering her native Wales.
- Peter Sculthorpe, Songs of Sea and Sky.
- Frederick Delius, Two Aquarelles for string orchestra.
- Toru Takemitsu, Toward the Sea II (Christine Draeger, alto flute; Verna Lee-Brown, harp).
- Vasco Martins, Symphony No.4, "Ocean in the Heart".
- Grace Williams, Sea Sketches for string orchestra.
You can discover the history of
Tarte d'Amblongue in either
PostScript or
PDF.
Concert 15, chamber music for strings, December 2005. Beethoven's Quintet in C major is a marvellous but little known composition which shows a marked advance on his first quartets, while Mozart's clarinet quintet is perhaps the best loved chamber work of the classical period. Music from Rimsky-Korsakov shows him in chamber rather than the familiar orchestral mode. Morning Star by Paul Stanhope takes its inspiration from the Aboriginal music of Arnhem Land.
- Ludwig van Beethoven, Quintet in C major, Opus 29, for two violins, two violas and cello.
- Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Allegro in B flat major (from the album "Fridays"), and Four Variations on a Chorale for string quartet.
- Paul Stanhope, Morning Star for string quartet.
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Quintet in A major, K581, for clarinet and strings.
Read programme notes, or find out about music for violin, flageolet, guitar and ophicleide (
PS –
PDF).
Concert 16, tragic heroines: music for voice and strings, April 2006. In one of his last works, Benjamin Britten set to music the climactic scene from Racine's Phaedra, a story which ultimately goes back to Euripides. The centrepiece of Earl Kim's song cycle Where Grief Slumbers takes its text from Rimbaud's poem Ophelia. Our trio of tragic heroines is completed by Domenico Giannetta's suite based on motives from Adriana Lecouvreur, Cilea's opera depicting the tragic fate of the great French actress. The programme also includes the world premiere of a work written especially for this concert by talented young Sydney composer Alex Pozniak.
- Traditional, Dives and Lazarus (Jenny Duck-Chong, mezzo-soprano).
- Ralph Vaughan Williams, Five Variants on Dives and Lazarus.
- Domenico Giannetta, Adriana Suite for string orchestra.
- Earl Kim, Where Grief Slumbers (Alison Morgan, soprano).
- Alex Pozniak, Spectres.
- Benjamin Britten, Phaedra (Jenny Duck-Chong, mezzo-soprano).
Programme notes are available in PostScript or
PDF.
Concert 17, Bach and his legacy: music for strings, September 2006. This programme, one of our occasional forays into earlier music, combines baroque, classical, romantic and contemporary compositions testifying to the immeasurable influence of the music of J.S. Bach. From Bach's own music we present part of his monumental "textbook" of fugal technique and one of the three great violin concertos, while works by Mozart and C.P.E. Bach exhibit differing reactions by classical period composers to Bach's legacy. Two Australian works show that Bach's influence is still felt by composers half a world away and three centuries later.
- Johann Sebastian Bach, The Art of Fugue, BWV1080 (excerpts).
- Johann Sebastian Bach, Violin Concerto in E major, BWV1042 (David Saffir, violin).
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K546.
- Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Symphony No.2 in B flat major.
- Max Reger, Aria O Mensch, bewein dein' Sünde gross, after Bach's chorale prelude BWV622.
- Johann Sebastian Bach, Sarabande, from Suite No.5 for unaccompanied cello, BWV1011 (Steve Meyer, cello).
- Stephen Leek, On this ground...
- Graeme Koehne, To His Servant Bach God Grants a Final Glimpse: the Morning Star.
Further information can be read in the concert programme (
PS –
PDF).
Concert 18, diversions and dances: music for strings, March 2007. The Bourbaki Ensemble presents works which are by turn witty, sparkling and entertaining. The programme includes The Ruritanian Dances by George Palmer, a judge of the Supreme Court of NSW who is also a talented and passionate composer. There is also a bright and tuneful saxophone concerto by a 20th century French composer, and early works by Mozart, Mendelssohn and Nielsen.
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Divertimento for strings in D major, K136.
- Pierre Max Dubois, Concerto for alto saxophone and string orchestra (Jason Xanthoudakis, saxophone).
- George Palmer, Ruritanian Dances.
- Felix Mendelssohn, String Symphony No.10 in B minor.
- Carl Nielsen, Little Suite, Op.1, for string orchestra.
The concert programme can be read or downloaded in PS or
PDF.
Concert 19, Australian and American music for strings, July 2007. The original chamber version, serene and transparent, of Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring, and a selection of shorter American works. Peter Sculthorpe's string sonata has American ties in its derivation from a string quartet commissioned by the Kronos Quartet of San Francisco. The concert also features the world premiere of a new work by Sydney composer Phillip Wilcher, written especially for our guest soloist Rachel Tolmie.
- Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring.
- Peter Sculthorpe, First Sonata for Strings.
- Carl Ruggles, Lilacs.
- Elliott Carter, Elegy for string orchestra.
- Phillip Wilcher, 1791, for oboe and string orchestra (Rachel Tolmie, oboe).
- Aaron Copland, Quiet City for cor anglais, trumpet and strings (Rachel Tolmie, cor anglais; Andrew del Riccio, trumpet).
See a photo of the Bourbaki Panorama Lucerne! PS or
PDF.
Concert 20, requiems for strings, October 2007. Pieces by Shostakovich and Howells provide vastly different conceptions of a "requiem" for strings. The Shostakovich is a reflection of the composer's life under the oppressive Soviet regime, while the Howells adopts in its slow movement a more elegiac and consolatory idiom, having been written in part as a memorial to the composer's son. The circumstances underlying Christine McCombe's Of Distant Sadness are not particularised, but it is impossible to miss the depth of feeling expressed in its dark textures.
- Dmitri Shostakovich, Requiem for Strings.
- Herbert Howells, Concerto for String Orchestra.
- Christine McCombe, Of Distant Sadness.
Programme notes, details of performers and so on: in
PS or
PDF.
Concert 21, the great romantics: music for strings, April 2008. Musical and poetic romanticism from Tchaikovsky and Byron, the latter in three poems set to music by Australian composer Graeme Koehne. Also exquisite short pieces by Finzi and Tavener, and Warlock's birthday tribute to his friend and mentor Delius.
- Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, Serenade for Strings.
- Graeme Koehne, Three Poems of Byron (Valda Wilson, soprano).
- Gerald Finzi, Prelude for string orchestra.
- John Tavener, Song of the Angel (Valda Wilson, soprano).
- Peter Warlock, Serenade for Strings, for Frederick Delius' 60th birthday.
The concert programme is available in PS or
PDF.
Concert 22, echoes of the past: music for strings, August 2008. Strauss's great lament for the destruction of Germany under the Nazis draws on the funeral march from Beethoven's Eroica symphony, while Britten's Lachrymae is a set of rather free variations on the Elizabethan lutenist–composer John Dowland's "If my complaints could passions move". The pieces by Finzi and Cotis have covert, perhaps accidental, references to the music of Elgar and of Mahler.
- Richard Strauss, Metamorphosen, for 23 solo strings.
- Benjamin Britten, Lachrymae: reflections on a song of Dowland (Amy Stevens, viola).
- Gerald Finzi, Romance for string orchestra.
- Bill Cotis, Adagietto.
Read about the early history of the Olympic Games: PS version – PDF version.
St. Stephen's Church, designed by leading colonial architect Edmund Blackett, has marvellous acoustics and is a superb venue for small ensemble concerts. A ramble around the church and the surrounding cemetery will disclose fascinating reminiscences of famous and infamous characters from Sydney's early history. Sometimes after Bourbaki Ensemble concerts a free tour is available courtesy of Fran Morris, who draws on her extensive knowledge of the highways and byways of local lore to guide you through the most interesting and historically significant parts of the site. At other times you can take a self-guided tour, assisted by the pamphlet which is available from the church. For an online exploration of Camperdown Cemetery, have a look 
