Program 2024

Brahms’ piano trio no 1 starts the evening, where the star team of Kristian Winther (violin), Li-Wei Qin (‘cello) and Konstantin Shamray comes together for this unforgettable masterpiece. Mezzo-soprano Deborah Humble enjoys a varied career at home and overseas where her rich and expressive voice is sought after in opera and concert, and with partner Konstantin Shamray she performs the intoxicating Gypsy Songs of Brahms, followed by Brahms’ Songs Op. 91.

This concert contrasts Mozart’s darkest quartet, K 421 in d minor with Prokofiev’s dazzling and energetic violin sonata in D major, with its echoes of the composer’s score to the ballet “Romeo and Juliet”. This concert features one of Australia’s most charismatic violinists, Kristian Winther, also performing as member of the Alma Moodie Quartet, one of Australia’s most outstanding young ensembles.

Rachmaninov’s sweeping cello sonata is here contrasted with the ardour of Debussy’s impressionistic string quartet. This concert features one of the finest ‘cellists of our era, Li Wei Qin, currently based overseas, and on this occasion making a welcome return home to Australia.

A selection from J S Bach’s “The Art of Fugue” opens with Schubert’s last string quartet to conclude this memorable experience on the soaring Central Gallery of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. The evening concludes with a gourmet supper in the company of our performers in the complex’s atmospheric Watergate courtyard.

Our festival finale takes us Richmond’s St Luke’s Church designed by colonial architect John Lee Archer, also responsible for Hobart’s magnificent Parliament House.

The main item on the program will be Schubert’s magnificent String Quintet in C. The instrumentation of string quartet, plus a second ‘cello, gives a rich sonority, making it impossible to resist being swept away by the joyous stream of Schubert’s melodies in this, the pinnacle of his chamber music output. Today we also introduce to you the new ensemble String Theorem, who will perform the early String Trio in c minor by Beethoven.