Chamber Music New Zealand: Ensemble Liaison

Timothy Young - piano
Svetlana Bogosavljevic - cello
David Griffiths - clarinet
Wilma Smith - violin

Presented by Chamber Music New Zealand.

Formed in 2006, Ensemble Liaison were recently named Ensemble-In-Residence at Monash University in Melbourne. Comprising three internationally acclaimed musicians, the group have been hailed by critics as "spellbinding" and "a revelation".

Former Concertmaster of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and founding member of the New Zealand String Quartet, Wilma Smith has been resident in Melbourne since 2003. She is currently Concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, as well as a regular guest with Ensemble Liaison.

Programme one:
Haydn: Piano Trio No 25 in G, Hob.XV:25, 'Gypsy Trio'
Bartók: Contrasts for Violin, Clarinet and Piano Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time

Olivier Messiaen's astounding Quartet for the End of Time forms the basis of both programmes performed on this tour. The work was first heard on a brutally cold winter's night in 1941 in a German prisoner-of-war camp, and was written for the instruments and players Messiaen found among his fellow inmates. The result is one of the greatest works of the 20th Century chamber music repertoire, made all the more astonishing by the remarkable circumstances in which it was conceived.