BRIGHT STAR Monday 24 September 6.30pm Elisabeth Murdoch Hall

PRESENTED BY Melbourne Recital Centre

ARTISTS John Bell poetry readings Simon Tedeschi piano

PROGRAM JOHN KEATS (1795-1821) I Stood Tiptoe ... Ode to Autumn La Belle Dame Sans Merci Ode on a Grecian Urn On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer When I Have Fears This Living Hand Ode to a Nightingale Bright Star

FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797-1828) Impromptu, Op.90, No.1, 3 & 4 Impromptu, Op.90, No.2 (excerpt) Fantasie in C, D.760, 'Wanderer' II Adagio Piano Sonata No.18 in G, D.894, ‘Fantasy’, II Andante (excerpt) Piano Sonata No.21 in B-flat, D.960, I Molto moderato (excerpt) Klavierstücke, No.3 in C, D.946 (excerpt)

~ BEHIND THE MUSIC Head to Soundescapes to catch John Bell and Simon Tedeschi in conversation about their ode to Keats and Schubert. soundescapes.melbournerecital.com.au ABOUT THE ARTISTS After graduating from University, John Bell AO OBE spent five years in with the Royal Shakespeare Company where he became an Associate Artist. Returning to , he worked with all the major State theatre companies and co-founded the Nimrod Theatre where he spent fourteen years. In 1990 he founded Bell Shakespeare and was celebrated as their artistic director for many years. He has played most of the major roles in Shakespeare’s plays and directed most of them as well, earning numerous awards as an actor and director. He continues to direct productions for Opera Australia (recently Tosca, Carmen and Madame Butterfly) and Victorian Opera, and perform as an actor, most recently in the sold-out seasons of The Father (Sydney Theatre Company) and Diplomacy (Ensemble Theatre). He returns to Bell Shakespeare in Molière's The Miser in 2019. John Bell is an Officer of the Order of Australia and the Order of the British Empire, and in 1997 he was named by the National Trust as one of Australia’s National Living Treasures. He has an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the Universities of Sydney, Newcastle and N.S.W.

Simon Tedeschi is one of Australia’s most renowned classical pianists, recipient of prizes such as Symphony Australia’s Young Performer of the Year Award, the Legacy Award from the Creativity Foundation (U.S.A.), first prize in the Keyboard division of the Royal Overseas League Competition (U.K.) and a Centenary of Federation Medal. He has performed in major concert halls and for festivals throughout Europe, North America, Asia and Australia, and for world leaders including former U.S. President George W. Bush, , Nelson Mandela, and the Dalai Lama. Praised for exhibiting 'true greatness' (Sydney Morning Herald), Simon Tedeschi performed his first Mozart piano concerto in the at age nine. Tedeschi performs as a soloist with all the major symphony orchestras, with recent highlights including performances of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.4 with the Sydney Symphony broadcast by Foxtel Arts; tours to China and the United Arab Emirates; a national tour of Enoch Arden with John Bell AO OBE and this year with their new collaboration, Bright Star. 2018 engagements also include Canberra International Music Festival, touring for Musica Viva, a third tour to China with Sydney Opera House’s Meeting Mozart, NOOSA Alive! Festival, Riverside Theatres and Art Gallery of N.S.W. Tedeschi’s wide-ranging discography features R. Strauss, Schumann, Mussorgsky, Gershwin and concerti by Grieg, Tchaikovsky and Mozart, all for ABC Classics/Universal Music Australia. ABC Classics released Tedeschi’s newest album, with violist Roger Benedict: A Winter’s Tale – with the music of Schubert and Schumann. simontedeschi.com

Melbourne Recital Centre acknowledges the people of the Kulin Nation on whose land this concert is being presented.

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