The White Hat Guide to Events in Newcastle & The Hunter Valley

Trio Dali

The young and glamorous French trio are named after a Chinese marble, rather than the Spanish artist. With two of the great works from the piano trio repertoire, White Hat suspects this may turn out to be a memorable concert.

• Gordon Kerry Im Winde (2000)
• Maurice Ravel Piano Trio in A minor (1914) (one of White Hat's Top 100 Chamber Works)
• Franz Schubert Piano Trio no 2 in E flat major, op 100 (one of White Hat's Top 100 Chamber Works)

Takács Quartet

Two of the finest string quartets of the 20th century performed by one of the world's most respected chamber groups. White Hat suggests that you attend both of the Takács Quartet concerts if you can. That way you can hear the pair pair of  Janáček quartets and the Ravel & Debussy Quartets (often regarded as a 'pair') both separated across tow nights - in our opinion the best way to hear them.

• Leoš Janáček String Quartet no 2, ‘Intimate Letters’ (1928) (one of White Hat's Top 100 Chamber Works)
• Benjamin Britten String Quartet no 3, op 94
• Gordon Kerry Variations for string quartet (2006)
• Maurice Ravel String Quartet in F major, op 34 (one of White Hat's Top 100 Chamber Works)

Trout Quintet & Quartet for the End of Time

A rare treat. Two of what White Hat regards as the finest works in the chamber music repetoire presented in the one concert. The Schubert Trout Quintet is full of sunshine and youthful optimism while Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time is, in White Hat's opinion, one of the great works of the 20th century. A prisoner of war, Messiaen wrote the Quartet for the End of Time for the musicians he found in the camp, premiering it to an audience of inmates and guards. “Never” he said, "was I listened to with such rapt attention and comprehension."

Australian Chamber Orchestra Principals are joined by clarinettist Paul Dean and dynamic young pianist Saleem Abboud Ashkar, making his Australian debut.The performers are Helena Rathbone (violin), Christopher Moore (viola), Timo-Veikko Valve (cello), Maxime Bibeau (double bass), Paul Dean (clarinet) and Saleem Abboud Ashkar (piano).

• Schubert Piano Quintet, “Trout” (one of White Hat's Top 100 Chamber Works)
• Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time (one of White Hat's Top 100 Chamber Works)

Our rating: Five Hats

Amarcord

Tales of Love and Murder. Renaissance madrigals by Encina, des Prez, Lassus, Gesualdo and others, and part-songs by Saint-Saëns, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Poulenc, and folk songs from around the world.

Kuss Quartet & Naoko Smizu

• Gordon Kerry String Quintet (2012)
• Bedrich Smetana String Quartet no 2 in D minor (c 1882-3)
• György Kurtag Officium Breve in Memoriam Andreae Szervánszky, op 28
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart String Quintet no 3 in C major, K515

Mozart, Handel & Vivaldi Concertos

The Australian Chamber Orchestra with Richard Egarr (Guest Director, Harpsichord, Fortepiano) and Satu Vänskä (Lead Violin)

Keyboard players, conductor, historian, and director of the Academy of Ancient Music, Richard Egarr directs this concert from the harpsichord and performs Mozart's delightful Piano Concerto No.12 on the fortepiano. White Hat suggests you take the opportunity to hear the difference it make to have a Mozart concerto played on the fortepiano rather than an overblown concert grand. Satu Vänskä is soloist in a Vivaldi concerto on the ACO's Stradivarius violin.

• Corelli Concerto Grosso, Op.6 No.1
• Castello Two Sonatas, “per stromenti d’arco”
• Biber Battalia
• Vivaldi Violin Concerto, RV190
• Mozart Piano Concerto No.12
• Handel Concerto Grosso, Op.6 No.1

Anthony Marwood and Aleksandar Madžar

Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata is justifiably well-known and loved as one of the great works of the violin sonata repertoire. However White Hat believes that Debussy's Violin Sonata, the last work he completed and the last that he performed in public, is yet to be afforded the status it deserves by the public. This fine pair of instrumentalists are sure to do them both justice.

• Gordon Kerry Martian Snow (2008)
• Ludwig van Beethoven Violin Sonata no 9 in A major, ‘Kreutzer’, op 47 (one of White Hat's Top 100 Chamber Works)
• Claude Debussy Violin Sonata in G minor (c 1916-17)
• Franz Schubert Fantasie in C major, D934

Russian Visions

Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir is one of his sunniest and most exuberant works and Shostakovich's first piano concerto is full of pyrotechnics for the pianist and accompanying trumpet. What is sometimes less recognised is that this work calls for first rate string playing from the orchestra. For that reason, White Hat suggests you take the opportunity to get along and hear it with one of the best string ensembles in Australia - or any other country for that matter.

• Prokofiev (arr. Barshai/Tognetti) Visions fugitives
• Shotakovich Piano Concerto No.1
• Shotakovich Octet
• Tchaikovsky Souvenir de Florence (one of White Hat's Top 100 Chamber Works)

Baby & Kids Market, Newcastle

Handmade in the Hunter Markets

McGuigan Seasonal Market, Hunter Valley