The Firm 2014 Concert Series in Elder Hall Opens Monday, July 21

For its 2014 season of five concerts, Adelaide composer-driven chamber music promoters, The Firm, will feature its first Posthumous-Form-in-Residence: The Waltz.

"We usually feature a posthumous composer in residence but this year we've decided to engage with this versatile and intriguing musical form" says The Firm's Quentin Grant, "although most famous in the late 19th century, with ballroom works by the great Johann Strauss II, the waltz has also been embraced as a flexible concert music genre by later composers."

This year's series will include waltzes by Ravel, Satie, Chopin, Faure, Korngold, Schubert, Brahms, Berg, Webern, Schoenberg and, of course, Johann Strauss II, with new works by Adelaide composers Luke Altmann, Quentin Grant and Raymond Chapman Smith.

Virtuoso South Australian pianist Leigh Harrold will open the Firm's waltz celebrations on Monday July 21 with Strauss junior's own arrangement of the most iconic and familiar of all waltzes - The Blue Danube. Harrold will follow with other works for solo piano by Schoenberg, Webern, Rihm, Schubert, Ravel and a set of new pieces by Raymond Chapman Smith.

The second concert, on August 18, presents the Robert Walser Ensemble playing works by Korngold, Chapman Smith, Schnittke, Grant and Schubert.

Marianna Grynchuk will play a solo piano arrangement of the famous Tales from the Vienna Woods by Johann Strauss II, alongside other works in the third concert on September 22.

In the fourth concert, on October 13, Adelaide sopranos Emma Horwood and Alexandra Bollard will be joined by pianist Jamie c*ckin a sublime concert of works by Satie, Faure, Brahms and Adelaide composers, Altmann, Grant and Chapman Smith.

The Langbein String Quartet and Marianna Grynchuk will present the final concert, on November 3, with transcriptions by 20th century Viennese composers of some of the most famous and celebrated works by the master of the waltz, Johann Strauss II.

All concerts will be held in Elder Hall at 8pm

Tickets $12, $7 concession, music students free, available at the door or through http://www.trybooking.com/FKTF

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