Ady @ the Con: Stan Getz & Focus. Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Brisbane.

After their successful first performance at the QCM in September, 2015, the Con have kindly agreed to have the Ady Ensemble back again in 2016, this time with a wonderful soloist & some interesting pieces, all influenced by Hungarian composer, Bela Bartok.

Eddie Sauter, known mostly as a jazz composer/arranger, wrote his classic Third Stream work, ‘Focus‘, for jazz tenor saxophonist, Stan Getz, which Sauter wrote & also had recorded in 1961. Whilst the work is considered a high point in the careers of both men, performances of the work are rare, with the last known performance of the work in Australia being some twenty years ago. To celebrate the fifty-fifth anniversary of the work’s creation & first recording, the Ady Ensemble is privileged to be joined by the wonderful Australian saxophonist, Martin Kay for a rare performance of this work. This performance will also be the first performance in Australia of the definitive edition of this work.

Sauter met- & was greatly influenced by- Hungarian composer Bela Bartok, & it was Bartok’s influence on fellow countryman Gyorgy Ligeti that inspired him to write his Musica Ricercata: a suite of pieces for solo piano. Ligeti’s Musica Ricercata is one the great solo piano works of the Twentieth Century, & for this performance the Ady Ensemble’s Le Grande Fromage has been busy orchestrating selections from the suite for the ensemble to play. Both Sauter’s and Ligeti’s works share moments of spookiness, playfulness, tinged with Bartok’s Hungarian folk influences.