“Late Night”: Down Under

The internationally renowned composer Cathy Milliken gained a wealth of experience in contemporary music as an oboist through her collaboration with Ligeti, Stockhausen and Boulez. Her own body of work includes vocal pieces as well as compositions for orchestra and small ensembles of various sizes. In addition to the composer’s piano quartet In Play, the 2026/27 season also features a second world premiere of her works, her concerto for cor anglais. Milliken’s style is strongly influenced by her experience in experimental, improvisation-based music, in which the human voice often plays a central role. At the same time, she often creates sensual sonic connections to popular genres.

Brett Dean described his work Imaginary Ballet, which consists of nine short sections played without a break, as a “suite of fast, rhythmic, dance-like movements”. The composition, which premiered in Eindhoven in 2021, was written during the Covid-19 pandemic and provides a vibrant counterpoint to the harrowing experiences of that time. According to the composer, it features “both driving, soothing repetitions and abrupt changes of direction”, and is characterised by “surging waves of quasi-orchestral energy and fragments of secret concealment”.

Dean has drawn on Robert Schumann in several of his own works, including his composition Conversations with Schumann, which he conducted at its world premiere during his debut at the helm of the Berliner Philharmoniker. So it is all the more satisfying that he will also be performing the Romantic composer’s works during this Late Night concert. Schumann’s Piano Quartet is the most noteworthy work in this genre to have been composed between those by Mozart and Brahms. It was written in 1842, a year in which the composer focused primarily on chamber music. The quartet consists of an opening movement that alternates between determination and lyricism, a fast-paced scherzo, a finale featuring passages in fugue style, and a poignant slow movement. Its wistful theme, characterised by wide ascending and descending intervals, ranks among the most beautiful inventions of Romantic music.