2025 Program
2025 Theme – Musical Crossroads
“At the 2025 Coriole Music Festival, I am delighted to present a gathering of internationally lauded musicians, some making their Coriole debut, and some appearing for the first time. Much of the music programmed this year explores the crossroads of folk art and composed music, of the magical and the real, and of the sacred and the profane, offering a wildly contrasting collection of glittering masterworks.”
– Simon Cobcroft, Artistic Director
2023-25 Artistic Director
Artists
This year’s festival will feature the Australian debut of celebrated British/Malaysian piano virtuoso, Mei Yi Foo. Also making their festival debuts in 2025 are the superb British/Australian flautist Joshua Batty, the exquisite Australian mezzo-soprano, Victoria Lambourn and acclaimed Australian clarinettist, Philip Arkinstall. Beloved Australian Soprano Lorina Gore makes a welcome return to this year’s festival, as does brilliant young Australian violist Justin Julian, Coriole favourite, violinist Elizabeth Layton, and the ever popular Lyrebird Piano Trio, comprised of pianist Angela Turner, violinist Glenn Christensen and cellist Simon Cobcroft. Joining the festival once again, is universally loved pianist, author and former festival artistic director, Anna Goldsworthy.
Saturday 17 May 2025
10.15 am
Introductory talk by Simon Cobcroft with coffee and tea from 10 am
11.00 am
Concert One – Myths and Fairytales
Our first concert is, in part, a celebration of one of the 20th century’s most exquisite and refined composers, Maurice Ravel. Opening with the perfumed and dark exoticism of his Chansons Madécasses, we continue with Mei Yi Foo’s performance of Ravel’s staggering fairytale masterpiece, Gaspard de la Nuit. Joshua Batty brings us Debussy’s mysterious and haunting work for solo flute, Syrinx, and our concert concludes with the Lyrebird Trio in a wild fantasy from 21st century Australia, Nigel Westlake’s Piano Trio.
1.30 pm
Three-course lunch (with Coriole wines)
3.30 pm
Panel Discussion
5.00 pm
Concert Two – Songs Sacred and Profane
In a coup for the Coriole Festival, the second concert begins with the world premiere of a Sonata for Cello and Piano by legendary Australian composer, Richard Mills, performed by Simon Cobcroft and Anna Goldsworthy. Soprano Lorina Gore then joins Goldsworthy for the achingly beautiful Op.10 Lieder by Richard Strauss, followed by Felix Mendelssohn’s beautiful and rarely heard Duette-Lieder, also featuring mezzo-soprano Victoria Lambourn. To conclude, the Lyrebird Trio performs one of the most powerful works in the romantic repertoire, Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio no.2 in C Minor.
7.30 pm
Supper (with Coriole wines)
Sunday 18 May 2025
10.15 am
Introductory talk by Simon Cobcroft with coffee and tea from 10 am
11.00 am
Concert Three – Coruscation and Fury
In our final concert, Mei Yi Foo gives the Australian premiere of three of Unsuk Chin’s Piano Études, amongst the most challenging and incandescent piano works of our era, after which she is joined by violinist Elizabeth Layton and clarinetist Philip Arkinstall for the furious dance rhythms of Bartok’s visceral Contrasts. Finally, Mei Yi Foo joins forces with violinist Glenn Christensen, violist Justin Julian and cellist Simon Cobcroft, to perform one of the best loved chamber works of all time, the Piano Quartet in G Minor Op.25, by Johannes Brahms. With radiant melody, sublime lyricism and, perhaps, the most thrilling finale in romantic chamber music, Brahms provides us with an unforgettable conclusion to the 2025 festival!
1.30 pm
Lunch (with Coriole wines)
