ALBUM
This exciting debut album from Melbourne-based Quercus Trio explores the rich vein of Australian chamber music written for the gorgeous combination of violin, French horn and piano.
Spanning forty years of creativity, it features two world-premiere recordings – Larry Sitsky’s Armenian-inspired Barerq and Gordon Kerry’s No Abiding City, a gentle meditation on the impermanence of things – along with important chamber works by Roger Smalley, Elena Kats-Chernin and Don Banks.
The seed for this project came when Quercus’s horn player, Carla Blackwood, was living in Europe.
‘I increasingly felt that two sides of myself were disparate: the one deeply and profoundly connected to Australia, with a strong sense of place and home; the other my musician self, the classical horn player. Australian music had not formed a strong part of my musical upbringing or identity. When I returned to Australia, I was keen to rectify this, to play music by Australian composers, and to connect these two parts of myself. I was aware of several significant Australian-composed horn trios, and, that being my favourite musical medium, it was the logical place to start.’
TRACKLIST
ROGER SMALLEY Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano (2000–02)
1 I. Allegro energico
2 II. Mirror Variations
3 III. Allegro molto
4 LARRY SITSKY Barerq (1984)
5 CATHERINE LIKHUTA Tangle and Tear (2018)*
*Digital album only
ELENA KATS-CHERNIN Velvet Revolution (1999)
6 I. Hymn
7 II. Freeze
8 III. Fountain
9 IV. Mostly Unison
10 V. Jump
11 VI. Anarchy
12 GORDON KERRY No Abiding City (2001)
DON BANKS Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano (1962)
13 I. Lento – Allegro moderato
14 II. Adagio espressivo
15 III. Moderato; scherzando
“From the otherwordly opening of Smalley's Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano through to the last moments of the trio by Don Banks the playing is, like the rock band Cream was to me as a teenager, sensational.”
– Classikon
“Superb! Absolutely mesmerising.”
– Classikon
“The horn trio is relatively rare as a chamber music assembly. With this recording, Quercus has moved it into the mainstream whilst reminding us yet again of the richness of our musical heritage.”
– Music Trust
LIVE PERFORMANCES
Daniel Schnyder
Walden for Horn Trio
Melody Eötvös
Shivelight for horn trio
Melody Eötvös horn trio Shivelight takes its title from a word first used by the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, who coined the term to describe the shafts of light that pierce and filter through the foliage and canopies of trees.
The work was commissioned by Quercus Trio in 2023, with funds from the Continuo Community Commissioning Circle. The ensemble and Eötvös share an affinity with trees, something they chose to draw upon as the inspiration for their collaboration in this work.