Essential Grevillea Series 2024 – No. 3
For our third Essential programme of 2024, we chose songs by just two composers, Hector Berlioz and Eugene Goossens, both of whom have reputations for their creativity and originality.

Hector Berlioz

Sir Eugene Goossens

Nuits d’Été (Summer Nights) is a beautiful song cycle by Berlioz, setting the poetry of Théophile Gautier. The theme of the cycle is love's progress from youthful innocence to eventual loss, and finally renewal. The work, completed in 1841, is often performed with orchestra, but the composer’s original version was for piano and voice.
Sir Eugene Goossens was a major figure in the development of music performance in Australia, even though he was only in the country from 1947 until 1956. His songs are strongly influenced by French Impressionism, particularly as it is realised in the music of Maurice Ravel and Olivier Messiaen. The piano writing is complex and highly coloured, in response to the evocative French texts. Click here for a taste.
Recital 1: Thursday 12th September 2024 at 6pm:
David G. Miller Studio, 1/38 Norton Street, Leichhardt
Recital 2: Saturday 14th September 2024 at 3pm:
Andrew Mitterdorfer Residence, 3 Garden Square, Gordon
Entry was by donation with proceeds donated to the Richard Gill School in Muswellbrook, a comprehensive, secular, independent primary school, with a music focus. School motto: Musica Motuque Floreamus (through music and movement we flourish)