April 2008

   The tour with no name!

I wish to send my profound thanks to everyone who has sent me good wishes over the last couple of weeks. For those of you who were unable to attend our April tour just gone, you will not know that only a week before rehearsals were to begin for this tour, I cut my left palm quite badly on a broken glass that fell in my kitchen. As a result, the repertoire for the upcoming tour was changed at the last moment in an attempt to try and assist my performing in the tour rather than cancelling. I was told not to use my hand for at least 10 days leading up to the tour to enable it to heal as quickly as possible.  So, this meant replacing the powerful Kats-Chernin work with Ross Edwards' marvellous Piano Trio from 1999 and the Rachmaninov trio, which is akin to a piano concerto to the incredibly powerful Shostakovich Piano Trio in E minor.  My two colleagues were fantastic in this decision process and we had a terrific tour, notwithstanding my healing injury.  I send my apologies to those who were keen to hear the advertised repertoire and I hope to reschedule these works very soon.

I also wish to thank everyone who responded to my last newsletter's queries about Melbourne. After also speaking with many of you at the concert itself last week, many of my questions were answered.  We are considering several options at the moment and I will certainly advise you of any new developments as they come to light over the course of the next few months. However, please let me say here that I value your input very much and am very grateful for it in helping me plan for the future.

As mentioned above, we had a most enjoyable and busy tour last week and enjoyed many wonderful comments from members of the audience and members of the press corps.

Congratulations on an outstanding concert yesterday.  I am delighted that you did not cancel the concert and continued injured as I received so many wonderful comments from members of the audience who, like me, experienced a very special afternoon of music.   Bowral

Congratulations! Your are a great ensemble. I thought today's concert was magnificent...especially in light of wounds etc. You are truly wonderful musicians. Thank you. I so enjoyed it. Adelaide

Just wanted to say how much we both enjoyed tonight's wonderful concert (cut hand notwithstanding!)  Sydney

Really enjoyed the concert last night thanks! The Beethoven was just sublime, all 3 instruments punctuated the flow perfectly, with no-one trying to out-do the others (as one so often hears in some trios!). The slow movement was beautifully played. The Shostakovich was exciting and truly scary in places - I thought the Ross Edwards piece was just brilliant too. What an inspired choice of program! The mood in the audience in the interval was enthusiastic and excited. People were talking about the performance rather than just 'catching up with their friends'. The eager anticipation for the second half was palpable.  Sydney

What a wonderful concert on Monday.  I arrived just in time but missed out on a programme so each piece was a surprise.  Who would have thought such disparate works would go so well together? Canberra

As always, our press reviews are all printed on the S&F website and we are grateful to those newspapers for printing our reviews.  Please click on this link to see the full reviews and the articles lately printed about the series and TRIOZ in national magazines:  http://www.selbyandfriends.com.au/2008/articles.html 

Here is a little that was written about the concerts -

(The Archduke) showed why this ensemble stands apart from others. Finally, in place of the scheduled Rachmaninov D minor, TRIOZ played the always striking Shostakovich Piano Trio No 2 in E minor, a staple of chamber music competitions and hence subject to youthful maltreatment. This version saw the work as an unrelieved tragedy from start to end. Selby observed a steadfast deliberation throughout the four movements, unleashing her percussive vehemence only at carefully selected points, while Vasilakis and Murphy gave several instances of exemplary duet work and, in Vasilakis' case, a searing purity of sound in her many non-vibrato sentences. As with all successful realisations of this work, the final bars were greeted by a long silence - the finest tribute possible to the players of their interpretation.  The Age

Pianist Selby, violin player Niki Vasilakis and cellist Emma-Jane Murphy are very fine musicians who work together superbly. They watch each other, look for cues and, I am pretty sure, listen to each other play as well. That might seem obvious, but I am certain I have heard several chamber groups over the past years whose members clearly didn’t. Canberra Times

Big News

Our tour in late June-July is not far off now and I think I am able to now pass on our big news! For those of you wondering why Emma-Jane is glowing lately, it is because she and her partner Cristian are expecting their first baby in mid to late June. You can imagine how thrilled we are for them both and Niki and I marvel constantly at Emma-Jane's stamina.  However, this means that Emma-Jane will not be touring with us for the next tour entitled Masters of Melody. As Emma-Jane will most likely be snug and warm at home with her new little baby, we have asked our good friend cellist Julian Smiles to take her place for this tour and Emma-Jane will be back later this year.  I am sure many of you know Julian from his work as a member of both the Australia Ensemble and the Goldner String Quartet and we are delighted that he was available to play with us on this occasion.  So, please put the following dates into your diary so you can be with us for this gorgeous program of tuneful masterworks.

 Guest cellist, Julian Smiles

PROGRAM

W.A Mozart -  Piano Trio in G major, K.496
Antonin Dvorak - Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor, Op. 90, 'Dumky'
Franz Schubert - Piano Trio No. 2 in E flat, D. 929

DATES

Saturday 28 June - Recital Room at Oxley College, Bowral - 5:30pm
Sunday 29 June - Elder Hall, University of Adelaide - 2:30pm
Monday 30 June - Fairfax Theatre, National Gallery, Canberra - 7:30pm
Tuesday 1 July - City Recital Hall Angel Place, Sydney - 7pm
Wednesday 2 July - Melba Hall, University of Melbourne - 8pm

Single tickets are available to all concerts.
You can contact us on 02 9969 7039 or email info@selbyandfriends.com.au.
 
For Sydney single tickets, please call City Recital Hall on 8256 2222 or go through their comprehensive website http://www.cityrecitalhall.com/events/id/205/Selby-and-Friends-2008-Recital-Hall-Concert-Series.

In Adelaide, tickets may also be purchased through BASS.

A Little Lunch Music

Our second lunchtime concert in March was sold out again - this was the one where we looked closely at Brahms' wonderful Horn Trio with my guests Niki Vasilakis and SSO principal horn Robert Johnson. City Recital Hall was our host and I can honestly say that I loved listening to Rob explain so much about the horn and the background of the instrument. For those of you interested in giving these wonderful hour-long concerts a try, the next one is on Wednesday 30th April at 12:30pm when I will introduce the incredible young trumpeter from Melbourne, Tristram Williams with pianist Michael Fowler. Tristram has a wonderful program in store and please don't forget to bring a sandwich! You can find out all details of these concerts by calling City Recital Hall on 8256 2222.

Till Next Time ...

Kathy

PO Box 18
Northbridge, NSW, 2063  
Australia  
Phone: 02 9969 7039 or (02) 9405 5532  
Fax:     02 9958 7111  
Email: info@selbyandfriends.com.au 
Web: www.selbyandfriends.com.au

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