Australian Octet - Chamber Masterworks

String quintets, sextets and octets have inspired composers to create some of their most virtuosic and moving music. Possessing both the dynamism of chamber music and the textural possiblities of an orchestra, the repertoire includes quintets by composers including Mozart, Schubert and Brahms; sextets by composers from Tschaikovsky to Korngold; and octets from Mendelssohn to Ross Edwards.

Australian Octet is Melbourne Chamber Orchestra’s new flagship chamber ensemble. Unique in Australia’s musical life, the Australian Octet is dedicated to performing music for five to eight strings. We have brought together eight of our country’s most eminent string players to form the Octet, under the leadership of Artistic Director William Hennessy.

Richard Mills Lachrymae, Chorales and Postlude*
Shostakovich Two Pieces for String Octet, Op. 11
Brahms Quintet in F major, Op. 88
Enescu Octet Op. 7
*world premiere season

For Australian Octet’s début season, we present three very different monuments of the chamber repertoire and the first new Australian string octet in 20 years, by Batavia composer Richard Mills.

Half breathtaking virtuosity, half passionate lyricism, Shostakovich’s youthful Octet is all showpiece—the composer himself described it as ‘the very best thing I have written.’ The Brahms Quintet shows a mature composer at the height of his powers, mining the intense vein of emotion and tender feeling that is the hallmark of his works. The program’s finale is a must-hear performance of Romanian composer George Enescu’s haunting Octet, a work of magnetic Romantic beauty and startling originality.

Shows

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