Paul Dean, The Queensland Orchestra, Grainger Quartet & Guillaume Tourniaire - Sublime Mozart (2009)

Sublime Mozart is dedicated to Australia’s greatest arts patron, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, AC, DBE, in celebration of her 100th birthday (in February 2009).

The programme features the Clarinet Concerto in A K622 and the Clarinet Quintet in A K581 by her favourite composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, both written at the end of his life for Austrian clarinet and basset horn player Anton Stadler. These ‘sublime’, very popular works are a perfect showcase for the outstanding abilities of Paul Dean.

The Brisbane-born clarinettist PAUL DEAN is much in demand as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician and teacher. He was principal clarinet with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra between 1987 and 2000. He has premiered over 70 works including his brother Brett Dean’s clarinet concerto Ariel’s Music. He is also a composer.

Brilliant young French conductor GUILLAUME TOURNIAIRE is currently enjoying a meteoric rise onto the international conducting stage. He continues his exciting and groundbreaking work as champion of world premières and rare music performances, including committing to disc the first recordings of Saint-Saëns’ Hélène and Nuit persane for Melba Recordings (MR301114-2). THE QUEENSLAND ORCHESTRA joins him in the concerto.

GRAINGER QUARTET, named after Australian composer Percy Grainger, was founded in 2006 by violinists Natsuko Yoshimoto and James Cuddeford, and violist Jeremy Williams, all of the former Australian String Quartet (who recorded music by Roger Smalley on Melba’s Through A Glass Darkly, MR301112) together with cellist Patrick Murphy. Their two seasons as a quartet met with both popular and critical acclaim.