Works by three rarely-performed modern composers are given their first airing for a Sydney audience at an intimate recital by Hobart pianist Joseph Havlat.

The hour-long evening concert is the latest in the Hayes St Studio series, co-directed by Sydney flautist Rosie Gallagher and US born pianist Lee Dionne. About 30 people fill the small performance room a stone’s throw from the Neutral Bay ferry wharf.

Joseph Havlat. Photo © Gabriek Isserlis

Havlat is based in London where he teaches piano at the Royal Academy of Music and composes and performs with several of the leading lights in contemporary music including Thomas Adès, Brett Dean and Sir Harrison Birtwhistle.

He opens the recital with the Sydney premiere of Sonata in Ten Parts by UK-based Australian Lisa Illean. It was written for French pianist Cédric Tiberghien, who premiered it at London’s Wigmore Hall last October and gave its first Australian outing at the Ukaria Cultural Centre in the Adelaide Hills in February.

Havlat worked with Illean and collaborated with her for a performance of the sonata in London earlier this year.

The 20-minute work consists of “meditations” inspired by fragments from the score of Beethoven’s...