Ensemble Liaison & Friends: Echoes of Vienna

Ensemble Liaison opens its 2026 series with Echoes of Vienna.

A program reflecting the rich musical currents that flowed through the cultural crossroads of fin-de-siècle Vienna.

The evening begins with Sergei Prokofiev’s spirited Overture on Hebrew Themes, written for Russian-Jewish musicians in New York and drawing on folk melodies whose roots stretch back to Eastern Europe. The program also features the world premiere of The Drowned World by Australian composer Stuart Greenbaum, a striking contemporary work inspired by the novel of J. G. Ballard and written for Ensemble Liaison.

Anton Webern’s youthful Langsamer Satz reveals the composer before his radical modernism, steeped in the lush expressive language of late-Romantic Vienna. The concert concludes with the richly lyrical Trio in D minor by Alexander Zemlinsky, a work of sweeping Romantic intensity that was endorsed by Brahms and captures the emotional world of Vienna at the turn of the twentieth century.

Ensemble Liaison is delighted to present this concert with their dear friend, violinist Sophie Rowell together with the talented students of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.

Sergei Prokofiev Overture on Hebrew Themes 

Stuart Greenbaum The Drowned World (world premiere)

Anton Webern Langsamer Satz for String Quartet (1905)

Alexander von Zemlinsky Trio in D minor Op.3