Carl Vine announces a “fantastic year of debuts” for the 2017 season along with the return of some audience favourites.

The first Australian tour by Britain’s intrepid Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, a contemporary blitz by Chicago’s four-time Grammy-winning ensemble Eighth Blackbird and the return of the ever-popular Takács Quartet: these are some of the highlights of Musica Viva’s 2017 International Concert Season. The Musica Viva Festival also returns in April, with legendary violinist Pinchas Zukerman and the Zukerman Trio headlining.

Topping the bill in the International Concert Season is the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE), which tours in November 2017. Formed in 1986 as a democratic, self-governing group of period instrument specialists, the OAE breaks all the classical rules by not having a conductor in charge.  Described as a kind of “supersized chamber ensemble” the OAE has flourished from small beginnings. Three decades on, it is the resident orchestra at London’s Southbank Centre and is still making waves.

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Photo courtesy of Musica Viva

“They have been to Australia once before for the Perth Festival but this is their first national tour, which is surprising really for an orchestra of their stature,” says Musica Viva’s Artistic Director Carl Vine. “They were very keen but it’s clearly a very expensive exercise. I would say it took about four years to actually get this together.” Led on this occasion by violinist Rachel Podger, the Orchestra will comprise 20 musicians on authentic instruments playing works from the era that gave the OAE its name. Their programme will feature two Mozart violin concertos (the no 1 and no 5), JC Bach’s Symphony in G minor and Haydn’s Symphony no 36.

The 2017 season will begin in February with a tour by Eighth Blackbird, a sextet combining the finesse of a string quartet with the energy of a rock band. Vine describes the group as at “the other end of the spectrum [from the OAE] but just as unique in their own way. And it’s something that I’ve not really done with Musica Viva for a while – which is an all-contemporary programme. But I felt if we are going to put our toes in that water, we’ve got to pick the best and I think Eighth Blackbird is the best of its kind. They are really extraordinary musicians and completely dedicated to the repertoire,” says Vine.

Eighth Blackbird. Photo courtesy of Eighth Blackbird

Internationally renowned for its performances of repertoire almost entirely commissioned by the group, Eighth Blackbird’s programme will include Nico Muhly’s fun Doublespeak, written for a festival honouring Philip Glass and toys, Murder Ballades by Bryce Dessner, which takes a dark look at Americana, and a world premiere by young Western Sydney composer Holly Harrison, commissioned by Geoff Stearn and Musica Viva’s Hildegard Project, which champions female composers in Australia. Harrison’s music is known for combining a rhythmically driven rock energy with whimsical humour. “It felt like a perfect match for Eighth Blackbird,” says Vine, who refutes any suggestion that an all-contemporary concert might be a harder sell to subscribers. “The notion of Musica Viva audiences as being ancient and old-fashioned is well out of date. I think our audience is more adventurous than most, and the thing that drives them is the quality of the work,” he says.

Harrison’s piece is one of three commissioned world premieres. Adelaide composer and cellist Jakub Jankowski has written a work to be performed as part of a September tour by the cello-piano duo of Nicolas Altstaedt and Aleksandar Madžar, while Vine himself has written a new string quartet for the Takács Quartet touring in August. Vine came across Jankowski “by accident” while auditioning for a recording. “I couldn’t believe that he was an undergraduate [at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide], the music was so promising. And it turns out he is a cellist playing with a string quartet [the Maple String Quartet]. I was looking for someone to write a cello sonata for Nicolas and Jakub was the perfect candidate,” says Vine. Alstaedt and Madžar will also present a survey of cello sonatas by Debussy, Barber, Shostakovich, Britten and Brahms, along with works for cello and piano by Nadia Boulanger.

As for his own new work, Vine says: “I’m very cautious about programming my own music so what happened this time is that our retiring Chairman Mike Katz wanted to commission me and he said, ‘will you write something for the Takács?’ The Takács Quartet premiered my fourth string quartet 12 years ago now and they’ve been saying, ‘can we play it again in Australia?’ This is my sixth string quartet.” The work has been commissioned for Musica Viva with support from Carnegie Hall (where it will be performed next year) and The Seattle Commissioning Club as well as Michael and Frédérique Katz. Touring for Musica Viva for a record eight times since its formation in Budapest in 1975, the Takács Quartet will also perform quartets from Beethoven, Haydn and Dvorák.

The rest of the International Concert Season includes the Indiana-based Pacifica Quartet (who were a big hit at the 2013 Musica Viva Festival), making its debut Musica Viva tour in June with a programme including Haydn, Beethoven, Shostakovich and Nigel Westlake’s String Quartet no 2. In May, Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt continues her mission to perform the complete solo keyboard works of Bach around the world, with two programs constructed around Bach Partitas. In July, the Sitkovetsky Trio will return after standing ovations during their debut tour for Musica Viva in 2014, when they gave what Limelight described as “an exemplary recital”. The piano trio will play three of the great works of the cannon: Rachmaninov’s Trio élégiaque no 1, Shostakovich’s Piano Trio no 2, op 67 and Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio no 1, op 49, as well as Lachlan Skipworth’s Piano Trio.

Pianist Angela Hewitt. Photo by Keith Saunders

The 2017 Musica Viva Festival will run at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music from April 20 – 23. Pinchas Zukerman headlines with the Zukerman Trio, which also includes cellist Amanda Forsyth and pianist Angela Cheng. “One of the three of them is playing in every concert,” says Vine. Other Festival guests include American pianist Lambert Orkis, Australian saxophonist Amy Dickson, the Elias String Quartet, the Goldner String Quartet and Musica Viva’s FutureMakers Arcadia Winds. Musica Viva’s collaboration with the Australian Youth Orchestra continues with 34 young musicians receiving mentoring and performance opportunities during the Festival. The programme will range from familiar masterpieces to little-known gems, and includes a new work by Australia’s Ross Edwards and a string octet by Jankowski.

The much-loved Coffee Concert series in Sydney and Melbourne also returns with performances by the likes of the Goldner String Quartet, Australian pianist Piers Lane, cellist Umberto Clerici, Canadian violinist Alexandre Da Costa and Melbourne pianist Kristian Chong among others.

Describing the season as a “fantastic year of debuts”, Vine is “very happy” with the programme. “It is always a jigsaw puzzle with massive scheduling implications, and getting everybody to land in the right place at the right time is a juggling act but it is always a great thrill when it happens.”


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