MUSICAL FRIENDS

NATALIE NICOLAS “By the Tide of the Moon” ^ *

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Adagio & Fugue in C minor, K.546 ^

MELODY EÖTVÖS / RISHIN SINGH “The Letter Writing Project” **

ALEXANDER BORODIN String Quartet No.2 in D major ^

^ These works comprise the St Johns Southgate 60 min concert program

* Commissioned by Andrew Domasevicius-Zilinskas for Flinders Quartet and dedicated to Aida Tuciute, and her beautiful kinship with the ocean

** Commissioned by Flinders Quartet with the support of Kim Williams AM and FQ Syndicate #6

ST JOHNS SOUTHGATE • THURSDAY 17 AUGUST, 1PM BOOKINGS
(approx 60 min performance, plus post-concert Q&A)

MONTSALVAT BARN GALLERY • SUNDAY 10 AUGUST, 2.30PM BOOKINGS
(approx 120 min performance, including interval)

PRIMROSE POTTER SALON • TUESDAY 12 AUGUST, 7PM BOOKINGS
(approx 120 min performance, including interval)

Visit FQ Digital to relive the works in this concert program, as well as bonus FQ Discover videos.

“Mendelssohn famously said, “It’s not that music is too imprecise for words, but too precise...”. We’ve always loved this quote and decided to explore this idea and pair two composers, Melody Eötvös and Rishin Singh, living on opposite sides of the world in a musical letter writing project. The premise being that one composer begins the conversation by writing a short section, which is sent to the other composer who absorbs the music and writes a short section in return. We are, in effect, the go-between. (Just like the famous L.P. Hartley novel of that name but without the scandal.) Inevitably, Melody and Rishin started asking how they should introduce themselves to each other musically, and the way the piece would take shape became a glorious unknown. The idea for this project became the nucleus of this concert program and led us to ask, “can music describe a person?” We think so. “By the Tide of the Moon” captures the strength and beauty of Aida Tuciute, a Lithuanian Olympic swimmer with a love of ocean swimming;

while Borodin’s second quartet depicts the love of his wife and their first three glorious months of marriage spent in Heidelberg. The themes of love, letter writing, and communication through music are counterbalanced with the crystalline brilliance of Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue in C minor, which celebrates the sheer joy of music for music’s sake alone.”

ZOE KNIGHTON, CELLO