Australia House Ensemble

PAST CONCERTS

A Message from Australia House Ensemble:

3rd March 2022

Dear Friends and Supporters of AHE,

We are delighted to confirm that our first concert of 2022, RECONNECTION has been rescheduled to Monday 23rd May at Australia House.

For those of you with tickets the ones you purchased for our original January date will be honoured. We look forward to seeing you again.

With all best wishes

Margaret

R E C O N N E C T I O N

Monday 23rd May 2022

6.15pm for 7pm

Australian High Commission

Kats-Chernin (quintet) – Moody Tango

Hindson (violin duo) – Little Chrissietina’s Magic Fantasy

Schubert (quintet) – String quintet in C major

Macpherson (quintet) – Waltzing Matilda arr. Koncz

Rebecca Chan (Violin; Lead)

Naoko Keatley (Violin)

Morgan Goff (Viola)

Pei-Jee Ng (Cello)

Hugh Kluger (Double-bass)

REAWAKENING 3 (Premieres 17th June at 7pm BST)

Mozart – Divertimento in E♭ major K. 563

Naoko Keatley (Violin; Ensemble Co-Lead)

Morgan Goff (viola)

Pei-Jee Ng (cello)

REAWAKENING 2

Dohnányi – Serenade in C, Op. 10

Marcia: Allegro Romanza:

Adagio non troppo Scherzo:

Vivace Tema con variazioni:

Andante con moto Rondo (Finale):

Allegro vivace

Naoko Keatley (Violin; Ensemble Co-Lead)

Morgan Goff (viola)

Pei-Jee Ng (cello)

REAWAKENING 1

Don’t miss members of the Australia House Ensemble playing an historically informed performance of Schubert Trio D 581, and Purcell’s Three Voice Fantasia No. 1 in D minor free to view on our website in a concert entitled REAWAKENING 1.

Hear the superb playing of violinist Rebecca Chan, violist Sascha Bota and guest cellist Brian O’Kane.

Live event coming soon.

18^th April 2021

Dear Friends and Supporters of the Australia House Ensemble,

The long-awaited return of live music is here, and along with it the resumption of Australia House Ensemble activities. We are emerging cautiously with a series of free online concerts- Reawakening!  The concerts will be free but if you feel able to give a donation to help with the ongoing work of the Ensemble please find details on the website – that would be much appreciated.

This series of 3 concerts to be released on the 6^th and 27^th of May, and on June 17th will feature members of the Ensemble performing as two different string trios and include new member Pei-Jee Ng on cello and guest cellist Brian O’Kane. The first trio (Rebecca Chan, Sascha Bota & Brian O’Kane) features a work by Schubert using historically informed performance practice, and the other two concerts present works by Dohnányi and Mozart (Naoko Keatley, Morgan Goff, & Pei-Jee Ng).

We plan to present a live concert as a quintet in early July 2021. In the meantime, please stay in touch and visit the website to enjoy some of our past work. We are re-running the memorable Anzac Day concert which was part of the High Commission’s Anzac Day programme of recorded events in 2020 early in the pandemic.  Or enjoy listening to This House composed by Joe Chindamo for the centenary of Australia House in London in 2018, which featured in the inaugural concert of the Ensemble in November 2019. You can also listen to Australian Percy Grainger’s ‘Handel in the Strand’ with the usual piano part arranged for strings by Peter Tregear OAM, also performed at the inaugural concert of the Australia House Ensemble in the Exhibition Hall at Australia House. This was a first for the Grainger piece and the first event of the Ensemble!

We hope that you can join us for all or some of these events and that you will join us for the return to live performance in July- watch the website and social media for details.

With all good wishes

Dr Margaret Mayston AM, AHE Founder

James Hancock, AHE Operational Manager

Rebecca Chan & Naoko Keatley, AHE Leads, and all the wonderful AHE musicians.

Next Concert

Previous Concerts

Night & Day

Australia House Ensemble present in association with the Tait Memorial Trust

Tait Tuesdays at Home

with guest Jeremy Kleeman, baritone

Tuesday 23rd June – 9pm AEST | 8pm NZST | 7pm BST

In support of the Tait Emergency Relief Fund for Australian & New Zealand Artists

Download the Programme

PROGRAMME

‘Little Chrissietina’s Magic Fantasy’ (Matthew Hindson 1968- ): Rebecca Chan and Naoko Keatley (violin duo)

BWV 731: Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier (Johannes Bach 1685-1750): Rebecca Chan (Lead, violin), Iona Allan (violin), Sascha Bota, (viola), Daniel Pini (cello)

Die Nacht (The Night) (Richard Strauss 1864-1949): Rebecca Chan (violin), Iona Allan (violin), Sascha Bota, (viola), Daniel Pini (cello), Jeremy Watt (bass). Baritone: Jeremy Kleeman

Violin Sonata Op. 115 (Sergei Prokofiev 1891 -1953): Iona Allan, solo violin

Morgen (Morning) (Richard Strauss 1864- 1949): Rebecca Chan (Lead, violin), Sascha Bota, (viola), Daniel Pini (cello), Jeremy Watt (bass). Baritone: Jeremy Kleeman

Irish Tune from Country Derry. (Percy Grainger 1882 – 1961); Rebecca Chan, Naoko Keatley & Iona Allan (violins), Sascha Bota, (viola), Daniel Pini (cello), Jeremy Watt (bass)

Cavatina from String Quartet no. 13 in B flat Op 130 (L van Beethoven, 1770-1827): Rebecca Chan (Lead, violin), Naoko Keatley (violin), Sascha Bota, (viola), Daniel Pini (cello)

ARTISTS

Rebecca Chan, violin (leader)
Naoko Keatley, violin
Iona Allan, violin
Sascha Bota, viola
Daniel Pini, cello
Jeremy Watt, double bass
Jeremy Kleeman, baritone

Hope and Remembrance

The Programme

Welcome and introduction from the High Commissioner of Australia to the United Kingdom

His Excellency the Honourable George Brandis QC

Quartet for the End of Time, part VIII (Messiaen 1908-1992)

Rebecca Chan and Cameron Roberts

Quartet for horn [cello], violin, viola and piano (F. Septimus Kelly* 1889- 1916)

Rebecca Chan (Lead, violin), Cameron Roberts (piano), James Wannan, (viola), Thomas Rann (cello)

Pericles

Reading by Major James Swanston (ret.) Australian & British Army

Lachrimae (John Dowland 1562 -1626)

Rebecca Chan, Sascha Bota (viola), Daniel Pini (Cello)

Irkanda I (Peter Sculthorpe 1929-2014)

Iona Allan (solo violin)

Message of Hope and Remembrance

Lieutenant General Greg Bilton AO CSC, Chief of Joint Operations Australian Army

The Ode (Laurence Binyon) 

The Last Post

Jamie Lawson RAN (ret.), bugle

One minute’s silence

Rouse

Turkish Coffee and Oranges (Michael Bakrnčev 1989- )

Iona Allan (solo violin)

Waltzing Matilda (Macpherson 1864-1936; arr Rebecca Chan)

Rebecca Chan and Sascha Bota.

We’ll Meet Again (Parker & Charles)

Rebecca, Iona, Sascha & Daniel with New Zealand soprano Eliza Boom.

Programme Notes

Quartet for the End of Time, part VIII (Messiaen 1908-1992): Wainwright writes:“ Messiaen wrote the piece in a prisoner of war camp after being captured by the German army in 1940 and was premiered in the camp in front of German officers, with Messiaen himself and other prisoners playing. It’s remarkable music, sometimes fierce and angry, at other times almost hypnotic. What’s incredible is how positive it sounds: there’s sadness there, a huge amount of emotion, but it sounds optimistic. It doesn’t sound destroyed”.

Quartet for horn violin, viola and piano (F Septimus Kelly, 1881-1916 ):  Born in Sydney, he was an Oxford scholar, Olympic gold medallist, but was a casualty of WWI, and a huge loss to Australian musical composition. The Quartet in E flat major was completed in 1904, in Frankfurt-am-Main, where he was studying composition. For this lyrical piece, the horn part is played by the cello.

Irkanda I (Sculthorpe 1929-2014): Irkanda means a remote and lonely place, very apt for Anzac Day remembrance and the challenges of our current times. In the words of Peter Sculthorpe:” ‘Irkanda’ is an Australian Aboriginal word meaning a remote and lonely place, and this work is the first of a series of four pieces bearing this title. Irkanda I is in one movement, and in it, long, melodic lines and bird-sounds are contrasted with brittle, rhythmic sections.

Lachrimae, (Dowland 1562 -1626): Published as ‘Flow my Tears’ in 1596 (Lachrimae pavane) for lute and later remade as a song, Lachrimae was one of his most well-known compositions. The musical form is based on Elizabethan dance, but it has a sorrowful melody and as a song has been recorded by many, including Sting.

Turkish Coffee and Oranges (Michael Bakrnčev (1989- Australian composer of Macedonian origin). “My grandparent’s had a ritual where they would each have a cup of Turkish coffee & would share an orange together every morning. After my grandmother’s passing, my grandfather continued the morning ritual. Seated at the dining table in the morning alone, with two cups of Turkish coffee, and an orange, he drinks one coffee, eats his half of the orange, before getting on with his day, not without a comment to her like: ‘come on Helen, let’s go’. This work is dedicated to those moments. The musical has a Middle Eastern feeling to it in part. It was written for Iona Allan in 2012.

Waltzing Matilda (Macpherson 1864-1936;arr Rebecca Chan): Peter Tregear writes: The words of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ were written by Andrew Barton ‘Banjo’ Patterson (1864–1941) while he was lodging at a family-owned sheep and cattle station near Winton in Central West Queensland and reputedly refer to an actual incident during the Great Shearers Strike of 1891. Patterson’s verses were quickly set to music by one of the farm’s owners, Christina Macpherson, who herself drew upon a pre-existing melody.

We’ll Meet Again (Parker & Charles):  Made famous in 1939 by Vera Lynn but relevant today as Her Majesty, The Queen in her speech to the Commonwealth on 5^th April 2020 said: “We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return. We will be with our friends again. We will be with our families again. We will meet again.” We are all looking to the day when we can meet again, learn to live in a new reality and to present music  in person.

Inaugural Concert – Australian Spirit

Thank you for coming to the inaugural concert of the Australia House Ensemble on 12th November at Australia House. Our next concert will be in April 2020 (date and venue TBC) and will feature Australian music from Australian/British composer Frederick Septimus Kelly (1881-1916) Elegy in Memoriam Rupert Brooke for strings (1915) and songs by Victorian born composer Calvin Bowman (1972-). 

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