Selby and Friends in Sydney

Haveron, Valve and Selby
(from their brochure)

Music in an intimate atmosphere is what Selby and Friends seem to achieve regardless of whether (like the City Recital Hall in Sydney's Angel Place) the venue is  a little too large to be called intimate.

On Thursday night pianist Kathryn Selby played at Angel Place with two gifted string players, violinist Andrew Halveron and cellist Timo-Veikko Valve, a combination so successful that my concert buddy immediately went looking for a brochure so she could book more concerts in the series.

Valve introduced the second piece, Busoni's Variations on a Finnish Folk Song, by saying it captured Finnish melancholia so well and I prepared for a mournful dirge. Instead Valve seated himself at his cello and played a firecracker of a piece - yes perhaps melancholic, but also exceedingly energetic. A  riveting piece played by a fantastic cellist.

The Schubert Fantasy that Halveron chose to play us after the Busoni was an inspired choice. Very different to Busoni, very Schubert.

Kathryn Selby is an enviable pianist and chooses equally passionate partners to play with. This was a  dream team.

Australia Piano Quartet pop-up concert

Thomas Rann plays Cello

Beethoven and Shostakovich string quartets played with such verve and aplomb that you really sit up in your seat. That is what the Australia Piano Quartet served up to their audience on Thursday evening's pop-up concert at the UTS Art Gallery.

The APQ are Ensemble in Residence at the University Technology Sydney and on Thursday they played with guest violinist Andrew Haveron who is concertmaster of the SSO and was previously with the Brodsky Quartet. I was one of the lucky 20 people to score a ticket and am enamoured with this group's passionate playing.

Andrew Haveron plays violin

They play a series of concerts at the Utzon Room of the Sydney Opera house and their next concert on May 10th.

See them if you can!

APQ Utzon Room concert, December2014