Ian Munro and the Goldner String Quartet Play Munro, Szymanowski and Brahms, by Andrew Miller
City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney: matinée 27 August 2011
Tours to Coffs Harbour 1 September, Melbourne 3 September, Adelaide 6 September, Perth 8 September
Karol Szymanowski
String Quartet no. 1 in C, Opus 37
Ian Munro
Piano Quintet no. 2
I Dreams
II Drought and Night Rain
Johannes Brahms
Piano Quintet in F minor, opus 34
Ian Munro - piano
The Goldner String Quartet
Dene Olding - violin
Dimity Hall - violin
Irina Morozova - viola
Julian Smiles - cello
The series of concerts of chamber music organized by Musica Viva this year continue with an exploration of, and this time a new commission by, Australian pianist and composer Ian Munro. He has created his second piano quintet (the first composed in 2006 was called Divertissement sur le nom d'Erik Satie) from two earlier works:Dreams, his winning contribution to the 2003 Queen Elisabeth International Competition for Composers, originally meant to be a first movement to a full piano concerto and Drought and Night Rain, originally written in 2005 for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and originally meant to be a beginning to a full symphony. Though it would be nice to hear these symphonic works complete in their own right, Munro has sewn them together skillfully into a chamber music piece. Really this is no different from what Prokofiev did to compose the Romeo and Juliet ballet music, which has a life of its own, so reuse of already composed ideas should not necessarily raise negative thoughts. Munro himself joins with the Goldner String Quartet which is lead by Dene Olding, who often plays first violin in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, also conducting the SSO earlier in the year, to play his new piece, but we also get the opportunity to hear the Quartet on its own.



