Synaesthesia
Location: Kaldor Hall, ground level
Free, no bookings required
Hear Ensemble Offspring musicians Claire Edwardes (percussion), Niki Johnson, (percussion), Sonya Lifschitz (piano), Jason Noble (clarinets) and Alexandra Osborne (violin) perform key works that investigate the blending of colour and sound by composers Alice Chance, George Crumb, Gyorgy Ligeti, Oliver Messiaen and William Gardiner.
Order of performance:
Alice Chance ‘Colourburst’ (2023)
George Crumb ‘Makrokosmos, volume 1’ (1962)
Olivier Messiaen ‘Abyss of the birds’ (1940–41)
Gyorgy Ligeti ‘Continuum’ (arranged for two marimbas) (1968)
William Gardiner ‘Hebbian theory’ (2014)
Wednesday 10 January 2024
7.30–8.30pm
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Settle in for some sensorially rich evenings at the Art Gallery of New South Wales this summer with a free program of performances celebrating the importance of music to the art and thought of Vasily Kandinsky.
Featuring commissioned compositions alongside classics from the early 20th century, Klänge (meaning ‘sounds’ in German) is a series of live music sessions, co-curated with percussionist and composer Claire Edwardes OAM and performed by virtuosic members of Sydney’s Ensemble Offspring in collaboration with Grammy award–winning, Chicago-based group Eighth Blackbird.
Kandinsky explored the synergies between painting and music, and considered music’s abstract language a model for a new form of abstraction in painting. Using colour and form to elicit the sensations aroused through vibration, pitch and the duration of sound, he referred to kläng (‘sound’) throughout his writings and, on occasion, in the titles of his works. To Kandinsky, ‘sound’ was interchangeable with the notion of ‘inner resonance’ or ‘spiritual vibration’.
Klänge presents musical compositions that will riff and swirl in relation to the artist’s paintings presented in the Kandinsky exhibition at the Art Gallery.
Live music program
Klänge
Wednesdays 7.30pm
10 January – 14 February 2024
Art Gallery of New South Wales
South Building
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