Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809): Flute Trio in G, Hob.XV:15
- 200th anniversary of the composer's birth

Paul STANHOPE (b. 1968): New commissioned work for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello & piano (2009)
- first performance

Steve REICH (b 1936): Double Sextet for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, vibraphone, piano & pre-recorded tapes

Ludwig BEETHOVEN (1770-1829): Septet in E flat, Opus 20, for clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello & double bass (1800)

Haydn’s music, celebrating a 200-year span in which this composer’s posthumous reputation has endured as a guiding light of music, begins both first and final programs in the Australia Ensemble’s 2009 Saturday night series, this time with the graceful G major Flute Trio from his prolific creative harvest. Paul Stanhope, among the most gratefully accomplished of Australian composers, is delivering another newly commissioned piece written for the formidable talents of Ensemble players; and the American composer Steve Reich, whose music has fascinated Ensemble audiences on other occasions with its intricately shifting patterns, has a major new score, his Double Sextet, in which flute, clarinet, cello and piano are joined by vibraphone and a scintillating maze of pre-recorded sounds. Beethoven’s Septet for clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello and double bass, the companionable and tuneful work that first made Beethoven a household name as a composer in Vienna, brings the concert and the series to a warmly convivial close.