Huntington Estate Music Festival 2008
Prelude Weekend: Saturday and Sunday 22 - 23 November
Main Festival: Wednesday to Sunday 26 - 30 November
The Huntington Estate Music Festival is held each year in the Barrel Room of the winery in Mudgee, a fantastic space with wonderful acoustics and unique atmosphere. The festival provides two complete programs, the Prelude Weekend and the Main Festival.
All concerts include generous interval refreshments and are followed by full gourmet meals prepared by resident chef Kim Currie, accompanied by a selection of the best Huntington wines. All evening concerts are preceded by a choice of aperitifs, with the full service of Huntington wines continuing throughout the concert interval. Local personality Kim Currie has been preparing meals for the festival for 14 years, building a formidable reputation as a great supporter of local regional food and produce.
The musical content is devised by Artistic Director Carl Vine and managed by the world's largest chamber music entrepreneur, Musica Viva Australia. In keeping with the long and distinguished history of the festival, each year features a stunning collection of prominent international performing artists alongside Australia's finest musicians, in stimulating programs that run the full gamut of the chamber music experience.
To secure your place in this year's festival, download the booking form. For more information, telephone (02) 6373 3825.
2008 Prelude Weekend
This year's Prelude features some of the most appealing chamber music ever written, including two of Beethoven's finest string quartets, Schubert's magical duet work for two pianists and Dvorak's much-loved Piano Quintet. Performers include the phenomenal Prague-based Pavel Haas Quartet on their debut concert tour of Australia and local Australian pianists Raymond Yong (from Melbourne) and Ian Munro, making a welcome return to Huntington Estate.
Saturday - 8pm concert followed by supper.
Sunday - 11am concert followed by lunch.
$255 per person: download booking form.
2008 Main Festival
The Main Festival is a five-day extravaganza of music, wine and food. There is a full concert each morning and evening, each lasting at least 90 minutes. Before each evening concert Artistic Director Carl Vine hosts an "In Conversation" with visiting festival artists.
The main highlights for 2008 are the peerless European period music sensation Hesperion XXI and brilliant Polish pianist Ewa Kupiec. The phenomenal Pavel Haas Quartet from the Czech Republic will be joined by local groups the Goldner and TinAlley string quartets, supported in turn by Australian pianists Ian Munro and Raymond Yong. The festival will also feature the world premiere of String Quartet no 1 by Sydney composer Paul Stanhope.
Throughout the festival there is time to share a glass of wine with the winemaker and mingle with the musicians as well as with your fellow music-lovers. There is also ample time in the afternoons to explore the riches of the local district.
Wednesday - 8:00pm concert followed by supper.
Thursday - Saturday:
- 11:30am concert followed by lunch.
- 6:30pm "In Conversation" with festival artists
- 7:30pm concert followed by supper.
Sunday - 11:00am concert followed by lunch.
$915 per person: download booking form.
2008 ARTISTS
HESPERION XXI
In a Huntington exclusive, the four acclaimed members of the remarkable Savall family, Jordi, Montserrat, Arianna and Ferran, will perform during the Festival as part of Hesperion XXI's Musica Viva concert tour of Australia.
Jordi Savall's Hesperion XXI has been at the forefront of period performance for more than thirty years. The group searches continuously for a dynamic synthesis between musical expression, stylistic and historical research and creative imagination. This scintillating reconstruction of the rich exuberance of music from other ages has breathed new life into current musical thought, and endlessly delights the group's countless followers around the globe. The family's exceptional and distinctive voices combine with rich instrumental colours to make musical magic that transcends all expectations.
'Nobody understands the art of setting early music in its historical context better than Jordi Savall.' - The Daily Telegraph, London
EWA KUPIEC, piano
Ewa Kupiec's career and reputation have grown world-wide at an extraordinary rate in the last five years. She is a regular performer with Europe's finest orchestras, and has performed in recent years with the Netherlands Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic amongst others. Kupiec's first visit to Australia in 2005 was hailed as a great success and has endorsed her musical presence on the international concert scene: her performances of Chopin's First Concerto with the Melbourne Symphony were chosen by the orchestra to be included on the first recording on their own label.
'Kupiec plays with a rare mixture of spirit, a faultless technique, a complete understanding of musical texture and an ability to shape music with transparency and an impressive richness of colours. Her playing is brilliant but never obtrusive, full of atmosphere and subtly virtuosic' - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
PAVEL HAAS QUARTET
Named as one of the 10 Brightest New Stars in 2007 by BBC Music Magazine, the Pavel Haas Quartet came to international prominence when it won the 2005 Premio Paolo Borciani competition. Concerts in major venues and festivals around the world and an acclaimed debut recording have cemented the Quartet's reputation as one of the most exciting young quartets performing today. This is the group's debut Australian tour.
'[T]heir account of Beethoven's 3rd Razumovsky quartet, from the miniscule pianissimo at the start to the thrilling, almost orgiastic Russian dance at the end, was breathtaking.' - The Independent, London
GOLDNER STRING QUARTET
'The Goldner Quartet is the country's indisputably pre-eminent chamber music ensemble." - The Sydney Morning Herald
TINALLEY STRING QUARTET
'Refined elegance and perfect sense of the music's proportions.' - The Australian
IAN MUNRO, piano
'A performer who understands the music but at the same time is able to make it sound fresh.' - The Age
RAYMOND YONG, piano
'Yong's playing quickened the pulse and excited the imagination. The finale flashed into passionate, pulsing life with often blazing virtuosity. This was a concert to remember for the happiest of reasons.' - The West Australian
PAUL STANHOPE, composer
The TinAlley String Quartet will give the world premiere performance of Paul Stanhope's String Quartet no 1 at this year's Festival. The work has been commissioned for Musica Viva by Julia Hickman Potter in honour of Peter Hickman's sixtieth birthday.
Paul Stanhope (born 1969) is recognised as a leading composer of his generation, not only in Australia but also internationally, with performances of his works in the UK, Europe, Japan and the United States. In May 2004 this reputation was confirmed when he was awarded first place in the prestigious Toru Takemitsu Composition Prize. Further international exposure ensued when his music featured in the 'Boy on the Bay' segment of the Melbourne Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony in March 2006, and broadcast to a worldwide audience of over a billion people.
Reviews of the 2007 Festival
Matthew Westwood, The Australian, 3 December 2007:
"The convivial atmosphere of music-making, food and company..."
Download: TheOz_HEMF07.pdf
Roger Covell, Sydney Morning Herald, December 2007:
"Cicadas supplying a distant, softly pulsing undertone to string quartets and a blue-faced honeyeater …".
Download: SMH_HEMF07.pdf
History of the Festival
'...Take a few days out of your life to absorb yourself in the world of musicians and their music making.' Bob Roberts
The Roberts family had no idea that their first "music in the winery" would develop into what it is today - The Huntington Estate Music Festival.
'...It started on a Saturday night in October with a group of young musicians from the ABC Sinfonia playing Quartets and Trios, some friends and Huntington wine patrons numbering one hundred. A sit down dinner featured especially prepared local spring lamb, slow open pit roasted , basted in salt, herbs and garlic, accompanied by asparagus picked that morning. The golden half lambs were placed along the centre of the tables on white towelling; the guests were told to each bring a knife and they carved for themselves. The musicians were of course placed amongst the audience at the tables. We had such a good time, in every way that we just had to do it again.' Bob Roberts.
Richard Tognetti had formed the Huntington Chamber Orchestra whilst at the Sydney Conservatorium and had performed previous winery concerts. Everyone was well aware of the stunning power of an orchestra in the winery but Bob and Wendy Roberts couldn't help but wonder if anyone would come?
The response from loyal Huntington Estate wine lovers was so overwhelming that a prelude weekend was created to avoid disappointing so many people.
18 years on the Huntington Estate Music Festival is a much loved and respected event on the Australian and International artistic calendar. Over the years the winery has welcomed musicians and guests from all over the world and played to seel out audiences year after year.
Tim Stevens, new owner and winemaker at Huntington Estate was enthusiastic to carry on every aspect of the Huntington Estate Music Festival and so in 2006 and 2007 under the direction of Carl Vine and Musica Viva, Huntington Estate welcomed exceptional musicians from Australia and overseas to the winery (photos). The festival was met with rave reviews from the guests, the media and most importantly, the Roberts family.
Kim Currie and her team have been much loved members of the Huntington Estate family for many years and continue to produce wonderful, creative meals for the festival guests and musicians. A talented and creative chef, Kim and her team are an integral part of the Music Festival team.
