Ensemble Q has a reputation for challenging audiences – and their next concert will do that with a program of music for our time.
The title reveals where they are at – Black Angels & Red Death.
Presented at QPAC’s Concert Hall on May 19, this will be a compelling and emotionally charged program of music exploring the enduring impact of war and loss and the human spirit’s search for meaning.
Featuring works by Ravel, Crumb, Caplet and Tchaikovsky, this unique program spans eras and styles but is united by a powerful thread: each piece is shaped by the experience or aftermath of war, confronting themes of grief, chaos, mortality and fragile hope.
That’s an ambitious program, for sure, and a cathartic one too, led by the esteemed guest violinist Zöe Black and featuring Ensemble Q’s Emily Granger on harp.
You might like
With an impressive core artist list Ensemble Q is led by co-artistic directors, cellist Trish Dean and clarinettist Paul Dean.
Born in 2017 out of a desire to create an ensemble with virtuosic integrity and a dedication to performance of undiscovered masterpieces, Ensemble Q has earned an enviable reputation for brilliant programming and the highest performance standard.
The ensemble brings together some of Australia’s leading musicians in their fields, with members hailing from principal seats in the Queensland, Melbourne and Sydney Symphony orchestras, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, soloists and chamber musicians on the national touring network and leading faculty at Queensland Conservatorium.
Subscribe for updates
From its inception, Ensemble Q was an ensemble in residence at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University before taking up the position of company in residence at QPAC, 2022-24.
Black Angels & Red Death opens with Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, a poignant homage to fallen friends of World War I. Paul Dean’s elegant chamber arrangement reveals the inner light and resilience beneath the music’s neoclassical surface.
George Crumb’s seminal Black Angels, written at the height of the Vietnam War, plunges audiences into an electrifying soundscape of amplified strings and eerie extended techniques. Described by the composer as a “parable on our troubled contemporary world”, it is a visceral, haunting journey.
André Caplet’s Conte Fantastique, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death, conjures the eerie inevitability of death through shimmering harp and string writing, reflecting the composer’s own wartime experiences.
The evening concludes with Trish Dean’s chamber arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Adagio Lamentoso, the deeply moving final movement of his Sixth Symphony. Though not born from war, its quiet sorrow and final descent into silence offer a fitting close to a concert steeped in remembrance.
‘Each work speaks in its own way to the experience of conflict and its aftermath’
“Black Angels & Red Death is one of the most emotionally powerful programs we’ve ever presented,” Paul Dean says. “Each work speaks in its own way to the experience of conflict and its aftermath—from Ravel’s elegant tributes to Crumb’s unflinching sound-world and Caplet’s eerie fatalism. It’s music that demands your attention, invites deep reflection and resonates long after the final note. We’re incredibly proud to bring this program to life with our remarkable Ensemble Q artists.”
Black Angels & Red Death, Concert Hall, QPAC, May 19. (This event is presented in Concert Hall Reverse Mode with the audience seated in close proximity to the performers on the Concert Hall stage).