Fusion Piano Duo Tahu Matheson and Lana Higson

LANA HIGSON and TAHU MATHESON joined forces in 2003 for the 4MBS Festival of Classics when the duo played Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess to sell out crowds during the 4MBS Festival of Classics.

“Young artists who should be lauded as are our pop stars, rock idols and football heroes.”The Courier Mail

Lana Higson studied under Oleg Stepanov and Leah Horowitz. In 1992 she was awarded the David Paul Landa Memorial Scholarship for Pianists which enabled her to continue her post graduate studies at the Moscow State Conservatorium of Music at the invitation of Professor Lev Vlassenko.The glamorous redhead enjoyed a brilliant solo career appearing with such eminent conductors as Vladimir Verbitsky, Vernon Handley, John Georgiadis and John Curro. She has given solo recitals in the USSR, America and throughout Australia. She has recorded for ABC FM radio and made national television appearances. Lana was named ‘Young Queenslander of the Year’ in 1994 and was a faculty member at the Central Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Mackay from 1995 to 1998.She has all the makings of a major international star, dazzling critics with her strong technical command, stylish shaping of phrase, her poise and her grandeur.“I could have listened to her all night... each piece was a revelation of the strength of her pianism.”The Sydney Morning Herald

Tahu Matheson studied his Master of Music at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music under Oleg Stepanov.At 20 years of age Tahu made his first public performance at The New Zealand International Festival of Arts performing Rachmaninov’s Preludes Opus 23 and the world premier of Ten Modern Concert Studies by New Zealand composer Edwin Carr. This brought him critical acclaim, with Tim Bridgewater of The Dominion, Wellington reporting that “...he caught the contemplative nature of many of the preludes to perfection.”Tahu made his professional debut in 1996 at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre and his international debut with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra performing Debussy’s Fantasie for Piano and Orchestra which earned him high critical praise for his sensitivity and masterful technique. Standing an imposing 6’ 7” tall and with the same hand-span as Rachmaninov, this exceptionally gifted musician has recorded two CD’s under the label Kiwi Records, has had Ten Modern Concert Studies especially written for him by composer Edwin Carr, has toured as soloist for Musica Viva in Australia and Chamber Music New Zealand, and performed at many festivals in Australia and New Zealand. Tahu has also played as soloist in New Zealand and on ABC Radio and Television.

JOHANNES BRAHMS Variations on a Theme by Schumann Op. 23

The Schumann Variations were written in 1854 as an expression of gratitude towards Robert, who strived to publish Brahms’ three piano sonatas. By this time, Robert was already in an asylum, and the composer wrote this piece primarily as a means of sustenance for Roberts’ wife Clara for whom he had a lifelong and passionate affection.This is a work of great poetic sadness and its tragic undertones are a clear indication of Brahms’ sorrow at the plight of the Schumann family. Brahms’ homage consists of ten purposefully characterised, firmly rhythmic variations. Touches of elegy colour the threnodial drum beats of No 4; Magyar flavouring infects Nos 6 and 8. Most touchingly personal is the final “division”, a quasi funeral march of dotted rhythms paradoxically in the major, which at the end, the theme poignantly combines with the march to provide for a coda of reflection and rest : “Death is swallowed up in victory”. Brahms dedicated the work to Schumann’s third daughter, Julie. The first performance took place in Hamburg in October 1863.

ANDREW SCHULTZ Twelve Variations for piano duet (‘Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung’) (1997)

Composer’s note:As its subtitle, this piece takes the expression marking from the second movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in E Major, Opus 109: “Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung”. Literally, ‘songful with inner feeling’. The subtitle suggests an internalised depth and calmness of expression as well as the presence of an inner line in the musical texture. The idea in 12 Variations is the gradual expansion of the music from a spacious, gentle melody to richer and more textured worlds drawing on an ambiguity of structure where the discontinuity of variation form is offset by a larger dramatic shape. 12 Variations for piano duet was composed in 1997 in response to an Australia Council for the Arts commission by Stephen Emmerson and Bernard Lanskey.

MAURICE RAVEL Mother Goose Suite

The origins of the Mother Goose tales are lost in the mists of prehistory. They first came to general notice in the anthology published in 1697 by Charles Perrault Stories and Tales of Olden times, with Morals. This includes the stories of The Sleeping Beauty and Hop o’ my Thumb, as well as Puss in Boots, Red Riding Hood and Cinderella. The story of Beauty and the Beast appeared rather later, in a collection of 1757, but the final story - The Ugly Little Girl, Empress of the Pagodas - is contemporary with the Perrault anthology.Ravel composed his extremely successful work for piano four-hands as a set of five piano duets. It is based on five fairy tales, among them ‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘Tom Thumb’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast’.No.1 was written in September 1908, and then, with the encouragement of his publisher Jacques Durand, Ravel wrote the others in April 1910. They are dedicated to the two children of his friends the Godebskis, Mimie and Jean, with the intention that they would give the first performance. In the event, it proved too difficult for them, and the work was performed at a concert in the Salle Gaveau by the 11-year old Jeanne Leleu and the 14-year old Geneviève Durony.Mother Goose is in Ravel’s most magical style, offering both great charm and deep emotion. Ravel wrote that “the idea of evoking in these pieces the poetry of childhood naturally led me to simplify my style and to refine my means of expression”, and it is the matching of the constrained style and expression that makes this work such a masterpiece.

JOHANNES BRAHMS Variations on a Theme by Schumann Op. 23

ANDREW SCHULTZ Twelve Variations for piano duet (‘Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung’) (1997)

MAURICE RAVEL Mother Goose Suite

Pavane de la Belle au Bois Dormant

Petit Poucet

Laideronnette, impératrice des pagodesLes

Entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête

Le Jardin féerique

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