View the programme for this concert (Adobe Acrobat Document) [328KB].
8:00pm Sunday 28 April 2002
Iwaki Auditorium
ABC Southbank Centre
Southbank Boulevard
Melbourne VIC Australia
| Chris Dench | beyond status geometry | 1994-95 |
| Richard Meale | Coruscations | 1971 [9´] |
| Elliott Carter | Brass Quintet | 1974/93 |
| Adam Yee | lev nishbar v'nidkeh | 1997 |
| Elliott Carter | Clarinet Concerto | 1996† [20´] |
The complex exuberance of Australian composer Chris Dench's music has featured regularly in Libra programmes since 1994. Our 2002 season opened with his percussion quartet beyond status geometry, originally commissioned by Sydney-based percussion ensemble Synergy.
Adam Yee is another composer regularly represented in our programmes over almost a decade; his lev nishbar v'nidkeh for solo recorder is an exegesis on the 51st Psalm.
Libra's first concert for 2002 also featured two important works by elder statesman of US musical modernism Elliott Carter. His Brass Quintet from the mid-1970s is joined by the Australian premiere of his recent Clarinet Concerto, commissioned by Ensemble InterContemporain to mark its 20th anniversary.
View the programme for this concert (Adobe Acrobat Document) [328KB].
8:00pm Monday 6 May 2002
Iwaki Auditorium
ABC Southbank Centre
Southbank Boulevard
Melbourne VIC Australia
| Chris Dench | light-strung sigils | 2002† [18´] |
| Damien Ricketson | Imagining Le Verrier | 2001 |
| Richard Barrett | Trawl | 1995-97† [10´] |
| Liza Lim | Veil | 1999† |
| Richard Meale | Incredible Floridas | 1971 [33´] |
Libra's second concert featured the Australian premieres of two works commissioned from Australian composers by overseas ensembles: Liza Lim's sensuous Veil, commissioned by Ensemble für Neue Musik Zürich, and Chris Dench's light-strung sigils for recorder soloist and ensemble, composed for the Los Angeles-based ensemble Music of Changes.
Richard Barrett's quintet Trawl receives its Australian premiere, and Sydney composer Damien Ricketson's exhilarating cello solo Imagining Le Verrier will be heard for the first time in Melbourne.
Richard Meale returns in his 70th birthday year with Incredible Floridas, his homage to French poet Arthur Rimbaud composed for the Fires of London.
Sunday 9 June 2002 to Saturday 15 June 2002
Ulaanbaatar and the North Gobi Desert
Mongolia
| Richard Barrett | The light gleams an instant (from Tract) | 1984-96 [3´] |
| Chris Dench | Closing Lemma | 1992 |
| Nigel Butterly | Evanston Song | 1978 |
| Iannis Xenakis | Dikhthas | 1979 |
| Peter Sculthorpe | Requiem | 1979 |
| Kaija Saariaho | Cendres | 1974/93 |
 |
| The stage for a concert in the Gobi desert. |
In June 2002 four members of Libra travelled to Mongolia to participate in the Third Roaring Hoofs International Festival of New Music.
Elizabeth Barcan (flute), Elizabeth Sellars (violin), Geoffrey Gartner (cello) and Mark Knoop (piano, co-artistic director) performed in Mongolia's capital, Ulaanbaatar, as well as in various open-air venues in the North Gobi Desert.
Libra Ensemble performed in five concerts throughout the festival - all works received their Mongolian premieres and generated much interest in both the ensemble and in Australian music.
Libra's travel costs to Mongolia were supported by the Australia Council and Arts Victoria.
View the programme for this concert (Adobe Acrobat Document) [104KB].
1:00pm Sunday 18 August 2002
Iwaki Auditorium
ABC Southbank Centre
Southbank Boulevard
Melbourne VIC Australia
| Michael Finnissy | The History of Photography in Sound | 1997-2000† [600´] |
| 1:00pm Part I | 1. Le démon de l'analogie 2. Le réveil de l'intraitable réalité 3. North American Spirituals 4. My parents' generation thought War meant something |
| 4:00pm Part II | 5. Alkan - Paganini 6. Seventeen Immortal Homosexual Poets 7. Eadweard Muybridge - Edvard Munch 8. Kapitalistisch Realisme (met Sizilianische Männerakte en Bachsche Nachdichtungen) |
| 8:00pm Part III | 9. Wachtend op de volgende uitbarsting van repressie en censuur 10. Unsere Afrikareise 11. Etched bright with sunlight |
In concert three Mark Knoop presented the Australian premiere of English composer Michael Finnissy's monolithic piano solo The History of Photography in Sound.
In this five-hour work Finnissy explores the relationship between two modern art forms - photography and cinema and their influence on contemporary music composition. One of England's leading composers, Michael Finnissy has a long and distinguished career as a composer and teacher both in the UK and Australia.
The History of Photography in Sound was divided into three concerts over the course of the afternoon with two breaks for refreshments and dinner.
View the programme for this concert (Adobe Acrobat Document) [558KB].
8:00pm Sunday 25 August 2002
Iwaki Auditorium
ABC Southbank Centre
Southbank Boulevard
Melbourne VIC Australia
| Luciano Berio | Sequenza X | 1984 |
| Matthew Bieniek | Fleshold: at the crossing over | 2000 |
| Chris Dench | ´atsiluth/shîn | 1991 [15´] |
| Pierre Boulez | Sonatine | 1946 [12´] |
| György Ligeti | Horn Trio | 1982 [22´] |
| Johannes Brahms | Horn Trio E flat major opus 40 | 1865 [29´] |
In our last Melbourne concert for 2002 Libra presented solos, duos and trios by Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, György Ligeti, Johannes Brahms and Australian composers Chris Dench and Matthew Bieniek.
8:00pm Saturday 31 August 2002
Peter Platt Auditorium
Maze Cres, behind Seymour Centre
University of Sydney
Sydney NSW Australia
| Michael Smetanin | Spray | 1990 [6´] |
| James Dillon | Sgothan | 1984 [11´] |
| Elliott Carter | Esprit rude/esprit doux | 1984 [5´] |
| Michael Finnissy | Alkan - Paganini | 1997 [12´] |
| Chris Dench | ´atsiluth/shîn | 1991 [15´] |
| Luciano Berio | Sequenza IXc | 1980, rev 1998 |
| Maurizio Pisati | Å | 1993 |
| Richard Barrett | what remains | 1990-91 [9´] |
Libra Ensemble's Mark Knoop and Carl Rosman joined Ensemble Offspring's Kathleen Gallagher in an eclectic programme: moving from Michael Smetanin at his most endearingly insistent to Richard Barrett at his most steely and uncompromising.
Along the way: a filigree duo by Maurizio Pisati, a rare Australian performance of Luciano Berio's Sequenza IXc, Chris Dench's sensuous trio 'atsiluth/shîn, James Dillon's voluptuous Sgothan, and Elliott Carter's Esprit rude/esprit doux - a greeting card to fellow elder statesman of musical modernism Pierre Boulez on his 60th birthday.
Also included was a brief excerpt from Michael Finnissy's epic five-hour cycle The History of Photography in Sound.
© Libra Ensemble 2005