Perihelion
Perihelion's rare lineup of clarinet, viola, piano and cello made the Brisbane chamber group a commissioning engine for Australian composers. Their recordings catch scores written for that mix at full colour and bite.
That lean, flexible sound suits dance energy, song cycles and darker chamber theatre alike. Points of Departure gathers works they drew into being, from Henderson's G'Day Africa and Edwards's Ecstatic Dance No. 2 to Sabin's unfussy three-movement title piece and Hopkins's Reclaiming the Spirit. With Schultz they cut through the poignant epitaph cycle Dead Songs, Stick Dance II and the multi-movement Mephisto; elsewhere they bring Kats-Chernin's Gypsy Ramble into the same vivid frame. The playing is strong and vital because the music was made for these hands.
Perihelion is featured on the following titles
Andrew Schultz: Chamber Music
Andrew Schultz is a younger Australian composer. This first disc devoted to his music gathers chamber works from the rollicking solo piano Sea-Change to the dramatic ensemble piece Mephisto and the poignant song cycle Dead Songs.
Points of Departure
Perihelion, the Brisbane chamber group of clarinet, viola, piano and cello, built its repertoire largely through commissions. This disc gathers some of the ensemble’s most successful new Australian works.
Perihelion also appears on
Chamber of Horrors
Tall Poppies presents chamber music by Elena Kats-Chernin, one of Australia’s most loved composers, in works written for the musicians who play them here.
Members of Perihelion
Nigel Sabin
Nigel Sabin is an Australian clarinettist and composer. A founding force behind the chamber ensemble Perihelion, he has performed widely as a soloist and orchestral musician, and his own works have been taken up by leading ensembles and symphony orchestras.
Patricia Pollett
Patricia Pollett plays the viola with passion and a big, warm tone that makes the instrument sing. Her recordings run from Brahms and Bruch with orchestra to Australian chamber scores written expressly for her.
Jenni Fleming
Jenni Fleming's piano gives new Australian chamber scores clean attack and unforced colour, whether inside Perihelion's clarinet-viola-piano-cello lineup or alone in Andrew Schultz's Sea-Change.
Gwyn Roberts
Gwyn Roberts's cello gives Perihelion its grounded pulse in Australian chamber works written for clarinet, viola, piano and cello, and pairs with viola in the song-and-dance lift of Ross Edwards's Ecstatic Dance.