Australian String Quartet: Utopias

Enter worlds of fantastical visions, intimate revelation, and quiet hope for the spirit of mankind.

Vanishing visions of the idyll — a Utopian world of natural splendour, aquatic and pastoral — are conjured by an intricate and highly original string soundscape from Thomas Adès, titled Arcadiana. Following this is Mozart’s String Quartet in D minor — intensely personal in its expression, moments of intimately sublime sorrow give way to bursts of playful radiance, in only the way Mozart can achieve.

Finishing this concert is a work that provides an outward lens to the inner world of a composer balancing a delicate and dangerous relationship with political powers. Dedicated to his third wife Irena, Dimitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No.9 is defined by its introspective whisperings, caressing melodies, and dramatic edge-of-your-seat rhythmic bite.