The Bourbaki Ensemble: Shaking & Trembling 2021

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Our first concert for 2021 will be given on Sunday 21 February, commencing at 2:30pm. Following on from our successful November 2020 concert, this programme will be given at St.George's Hall, Newtown, part of the Newtown High School of the Performing Arts (map), and is entitled shaking and trembling: music for strings.

• John Adams, Shaker Loops, for string orchestra.

• Graeme Koehne, Shaker Dances.

• Eric Whitacre, The River Cam, for cello and strings (Daniel Morris, cello).

• Ralph Vaughan Williams, The Lark Ascending (Alastair Duff-Forbes, violin).

John Adams' Shaker Loops (1983) is one of the masterpieces of American music, bringing a Romantic aesthetic into the textures of 1960s minimalism. Throughout its four movements (Shaking and Trembling, Hymning Slews, Loops and Verses and A Final Shaking), shimmering musical patterns form, dissolve, re-form and fade away: the initial emphasis on pure sound does not prevent the composer from proceeding to episodes of great musical drama.

Graeme Koehne's Shaker Dances, despite the similar title, is very different, being an exploration of the folk music style often associated with the American religious sect sometimes known as 'Shakers'.

Our programme continues with performances from two soloists having lengthy associations with the Bourbaki Ensemble. The River Cam, a gentle and lyrical and impression of the English countryside, is the work of Eric Whitacre, one of the leading American composers of the generation following that of John Adams; while Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending (which we present in a string arrangement by Martin Gerigk) is a work whose brightness is never tarnished by familiarity.

The concert is a Covid-safe event. 75% of the seats in the venue are for sale. Please purchase tickets on-line as there will be no cash-sales at the door. Concert-goers will be required to check-in to the concert, using the Service NSW app. Mask-wearing is encouraged at the concert.