Australia Piano Quartet

The second short series of chamber music concerts at Milton Court Concert Hall organised by Lisa Peacock Concert Management closes on Tuesday 2nd June 2015 with the Australia Piano Quartet (APQ). The concert, part of the APQ’s first European tour, includes a diverse programme: the late Peter Sculthorpe’s Landscapes II, Fauré’s Piano Quartet No 2 in G minor Op 45, Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E flat major Op 47, and a new commission for the Quartet: Responsorium Op 23 by Jack Symonds.

The Australia Piano Quartet has begun a residency at the University of Technology, Sydney building on five years of collaboration at the institution. APQ will curate six projects that forge cross-departmental conversations, commissioning innovative new works by seven Australian composers and culminating in concert performances in UTS’s new Frank Gehry-designed Auditorium. One of the Quartet’s chosen composers is Jack Symonds and the resulting commission is Responsorium. The composer describes the piece as ‘an imaginary musical building inspired by the curvilinear architecture of Frank Gehry… the piece is also an oblique reflection on the legacy of recently-deceased Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe. The harmony is created out of transformed versions of some of his chordal fingerprints, though taken on a very different journey.’

The other composers are William Barton, Andrew Batt-Rawden, Huw Belling, Elliott Gyger, Nicholas Ng and Marcus Whale. The Australia Piano Quartet is also the only Australian chamber ensemble to be presented by the Sydney Opera House.