Cindy Batt and Bob Bickerton opening karanga
Carl Nielsen – Serenata in vano – James Campbell (clarinet), Shadley van Wyck (horn) Todd Gibson-Cornish (bassoon), Martin Smith (cello)
Francis Poulenc – Élégie for horn and piano – Shadley van Wyck (horn), Sarah Watkins (piano)
Jenny McLeod – Tone Clock Piece No. 4 (Vive Messaien) – Sarah Watkins (piano)
Alberto Ginastera – String Quartet No. 1 – Jupiter String Quartet
Reena Esmail – Darshan – Charukeshi – Mélanie Clapiès (violin)
Wolfgang Mozart – Clarinet Concerto in A major K 622 (arr. for quintet) – James Campbell (clarinet), New Zealand String Quartet
We open the 18th Adam Chamber Music Festival with an evening of rich musical colour and striking contrasts, spanning centuries, continents and styles. Carl Nielsen’s light-hearted serenade unfolds like a musical conversation – playful, poetic, and distinctly Scandinavian. In Élégie, French composer Francis Poulenc pays tribute to legendary British horn player, Dennis Brain, who died in a car accident in 1957. Brain was greatly admired by Poulenc and keenly missed by fellow musicians and audiences alike.
Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera’s String Quartet No. 1 follows with raw energy and rhythmic vitality in its synthesis of modernist drive and folk-inspired passion. A moment of reflection and devotion arrives with Reena Esmail’s Darshan – Charukeshi, blending Indian classical traditions with Western forms.
The evening concludes with a fresh take on a beloved classic, Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in an arrangement for clarinet and string quintet, in which we experience the lyrical beauty and crystalline brilliance of one of Mozart’s final masterpieces.
