For the 2008 Festival, Musica Viva presents the dynamic musical partnership of the Goldner String Quartet and acclaimed Scottish pianist Steven Osborne.

This electrifying combination perform two popular piano quintets, Schumann's surging romantic masterpiece and Shostakovich's neo-classical work. The Quartet performs Musica Viva's 2008 Featured Composer Richard Mills' first String Quartet while Osborne explores the sensual world of Debussy?s best-known Preludes.

Richard Mills
String Quartet no 1 revised 2007
Dmitri Shostakovich Piano Quintet in G minor, Op 57
Claude Debussy Preludes (Book 1), Nos 6-10 1910
Robert Schumann Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op 44

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CONCERT 2

CHERYL BARKER, PETER COLEMAN-WRIGHT & PIERS LANE

'Barker's singing... produces moments of searing intensity.' THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

'Peter Coleman-Wright... pours forth a stream of beautifully moulded sound.' THE TIMES, LONDON

'Piers Lane... whose playing is of a superb musical intelligence, sensitivity, and scintillating brilliance.' THE GRAMOPHONE

Cheryl Barker and Peter Coleman-Wright have stellar operatic careers spanning the globe. This tour is another much-treasured opportunity for them to reunite with celebrated pianist and long-time family friend Piers Lane in a program of solos and duets from the great Austro-German Romantic lieder repertoire.

We journey from Strauss' sublime Morgen to Wolf's intensely dramatic Der Feuerreiter, from Schumann's duets of love inspired by nature to Weill's direct and appealing theatricality. The program's centrepiece is the world premiere of Richard Mill's song cycle, Songlines of the Heart's Desires, written expressly for these three artists.

Cheryl Barker soprano
Peter Coleman-Wright baritone
Piers Lane piano

'An evening of song with three great friends who all, miraculously, turn out to be world-renowned performers.' CARL VINE

CONCERT 3

PEKKA KUUSISTO & SIMON CRAWFORD-PHILLIPS

'This young Finn... was sublimely beautiful and unshowy, playing for the music, not for himself.' THE TIMES, LONDON

Since winning the Sibelius Violin Competition at the age of nineteen, Pekka Kuusisto's intensity, enthusiasm and virtuosity have stunned audiences around the world. Simon Crawford-Phillips, pianist of the Kungsbacka Piano Trio, has become one of the most eagerly sought musical partners in Europe.

This devilishly talented duo explores major works by Schubert, Sibelius and Corigliano, which will be used as starting points for further exploration. Our young tour guides will change direction as the mood and the occasion takes them, with detours through jazz, folk and more besides.

Pekka Kuusisto violin
Simon Crawford-Phillips piano

'There is such a high level of talent and inventiveness concentrated in these two musicians that it simply must violate some universal law of the cosmos.' CARL VINE

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