Dene Olding
Australian violinist Dene Olding brings refined, expressive tone and sure intonation to chamber music that ranges from Schubert’s great C major Quintet to the full span of Peter Sculthorpe’s string quartets and new Australian scores.
As first violin of the Goldner String Quartet and a long-standing member of the Australia Ensemble, Olding anchors performances that reviewers praise for unhurried eloquence, tonal homogeneity and deep affection for every note. In Schubert the Adagio’s yearning violin discourse sits inside a tranced stillness; in Shostakovich the high playing is sinewy, expressive and smack in the middle of the note. The Goldners’ Sculthorpe cycle, recorded in the composer’s presence, moves from austere mid-1960s lyricism through Pacific and landscape colours to the later quartets’ loneliness, ferocious anger and heart-rending Afghan love song. He also leads and solos in Westlake’s Antarctica film music and appears across Australian chamber commissions that favour directness, colour and rhythmic life. The playing is committed, passionate and superbly controlled without fuss.
Performing as Australia Ensemble
The Australia Ensemble, resident at the University of New South Wales since its founding in 1980, is widely recognised as Australia’s leading chamber music ensemble. Seven principal instrumentalists form its core, joined by guests for standard repertoire and unusual combinations.
Mozart & Brahms: The Clarinet Quintets
Catherine McCorkill joins the Australia Ensemble for two pillars of the clarinet chamber repertoire: Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581, on basset clarinet, and Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet, Op. 115.
Shostakovich
Two of Shostakovich's most powerful and popular chamber works, given hair-raising performances by Australia's finest chamber ensemble.
Schubert
Schubert's best-loved chamber works: the great String Quintet in C and The Shepherd on the Rock, played by The Australia Ensemble with guest artists Jennifer Bates (soprano) and David Pereira (cello).
Café Concertino
The Australia Ensemble, Australia's foremost chamber group and in residence at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, presents commissioned and core Australian chamber works.
Performing as Goldner String Quartet
The Goldner String Quartet plays Peter Sculthorpe's complete string quartets with the authority of an ensemble totally inside the music: precise, tonally varied, and alive to landscape, ritual rhythm and sudden cascades of harmonics.
Peter Sculthorpe: The String Quartets, Vol. 3
Tall Poppies presents this third volume of Peter Sculthorpe’s string quartets as a tribute on the occasion of his 80th birthday in April 2009.
Peter Sculthorpe: The String Quartets, Vol. 2
The Goldner String Quartet, the string players of the Australia Ensemble at the University of NSW, presents this historic survey of Sculthorpe’s string-quartet oeuvre, available as a set on CD for the first time.
Peter Sculthorpe: The String Quartets, Vol. 1
The Goldner String Quartet — the string players of the Australia Ensemble at the University of NSW — presents this historic first volume, making Sculthorpe’s substantial body of string-quartet writing available on CD for the first time.
Dene Olding also appears on
An Australian Collection
Nineteen tracks drawn from the Tall Poppies catalogue, chosen to show the range and depth of Australian composition and performance across the label’s first decade.
Onomatopoeia
Long-awaited performances of Nigel Westlake’s most acclaimed chamber works, with outstanding Australian players. One of Tall Poppies’ most successful releases.
Antarctica: The Film Music
Australia's first IMAX film, scored by Nigel Westlake with music that captures the awesome spaces of the ice and the delights of the local fauna. Soloists include David Pereira (cello), Dene Olding (violin), Timothy Kain (guitar) and Christine Douglas (soprano).