Perotin - Viderunt Omnes (arr. Huon Quartet)
Shostakovich - String Quartet No.7
Tom Henry - Shelley on the Water (new commission)
Ravel - String Quartet


This programme has its origins in Gothic France/Notre Dame of the 11th century and begins with our arrangement of Perotin’s transcendent Viderunt Omnes. The next work, by the ever sinister and haunted Shostakovich, was written in memory of his first wife. It is an extraordinarily complex yet concisely composed quartet; full of familiar Shostakovich motifs, beautiful yet uncomfortable melodies and virtuosic, almost unplayable passages! Yes…almost. The next work on the programme has special significance. It was commissioned by us, and well, it felt like Christmas when we received it! Inspired by the revolutionary English Romantic poet, Percy Shelley this work by Melbourne Composer Tom Henry, is evocative, dramatic, complex, clever but most of all…. simply beautiful. Back to France for Ravel’s highly evocative and sensual quartet in F. Critics at the time described it as “vague, incoherent with weird harmonic eccentricities”. That’s why we love it!