SPIRIT OF THE WILD

‘There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more’

- Lord Byron

Nigel Westlake’s oboe concerto Spirit of the Wild premiered in February 2017 to rapturous reviews, with The Sydney Morning Herald likening Diana Doherty’s performance to “an incarnation of an exotic woodland bird, a mercurial animal of alert and sometimes savage energy, and a force of creation all in one.”

Spirit Ensemble will premiere Westlake’s chamber version of this magnificent new work in nature’s concert hall – along with Mozart’s Oboe Quartet in F major, K.370, Fauré’s Piano Quartet No.1 in C minor, and Benjamin Britten’s Phantasy Quartet for Oboe and String Trio, Op.2.

Diana Doherty* | oboe
Andrew Haveron* | violin
Lerida Delbridge* | violin
Justin Williams* | viola
Catherine Hewgill* | cello
Bernadette Harvey | piano

* Member of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra

PROGRAM

W.A. Mozart: Oboe Quartet in F major, K.370/368b
Gabriel Fauré: Piano Quartet No.1 in C minor, Op.15

INTERVAL

Benjamin Britten: Fantasy Quartet for Oboe and String Trio, Op.2
Nigel Westlake: Spirit of the Wild (sextet version) for oboe, string quartet and piano

Photo credit: Christie Brewster