★★★★★ Chutzpah aplenty in outstanding evening of gutsy chamber music.

Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre
April 27, 2016

A large and devoted audience filled the glowing wooden interiors of the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall at the Melbourne Recital Centre last Wednesday night for the opening concert of Ensemble Liaison’s 2016 series. The trio turns 10 this year, and have promised an impressive programme of three concerts for the year. As David Griffiths (clarinet) hinted as he addressed the audience at the beginning of the concert, Wednesday night’s edition was going to be ‘epic’. Three works, all from the 20th century, all requiring the help of an expert collection of ‘friends’, both old and new, and each testing the skill and expertise of the veteran ensemble.

The opening work, while not exactly ‘epic’, made for a solid concert opener. Ernest Bloch’s Three Nocturnes explores contrasting moods, from the haunting stillness of the first movement, to robust lyricism in the second, and rumbling energy in the third. Ensemble Liaison core members Svetlana Bogosavljevic (cello) and Timothy Young (piano) were joined by their first friend for the evening, MSO Associate Concertmaster Sophie Rowell, for an expressive reading of this concise concert opener, which they...