Tales of Fragile Sensations
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Sunday, 3 May 2026
2:00 pm
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Snow Concert Hall
40 Monaro Cres, Red Hill, ACT 2603
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In Association with
One of the most distinct voices in contemporary music beautifully expressed by Ensemble Contrechamps
Récit des sensations fragiles (tales of fragile sensations), forms part of Jürg Frey’s intense and luminous late-period oeuvre, which has brought him growing international recognition in recent years. The New Yorker has described him as ‘one of the most distinct voices in contemporary music.’
This new, nearly hour-long work, written for 18 instruments, once again evokes the vast, tranquil soundscapes that are the hallmark of Frey’s style. It invites listeners into a space of quiet contemplation, a sound world that one reviewer described as “the most ravishing place on the planet during its placid unfolding.”
Ensemble Contrechamps will present this concert in an environment that enhances the meditative atmosphere. Don’t miss your chance to experience Jürg Frey’s music in this pristine acoustic with a stellar line-up of Festival artists, one that is sure to deeply enrich and expand your musical experience.
Jürg Frey (born 1953, Aarau, Switzerland) is a leading Swiss composer and clarinetist known for his spacious, quiet sound-worlds. Trained in Geneva and Bern, he has received major international commissions, and his works are widely performed and recorded. Frey is a central figure in the Wandelweiser collective, a movement devoted to silence, stillness and radical attentiveness in music. His contributions have shaped Wandelweiser’s aesthetic and influenced a global generation of composers engaged with minimal, contemplative sound.
‘master of calm instrumental textures… who explores silence as much as sound and writes egoless music that feels as though it’s always existed’ The Guardian
‘Mahler Adagio suspended in zero gravity’ Alex Ross, The New Yorker on Frey’s music
‘A rare jewel in the CIMF festival – no one else is presenting work like this in Australia’
Artists
Antoine Françoise conductor
Ensemble Contrechamps (Switzerland)
James Crabb classical accordion
Veronica Bailey percussion
Lyrebird Brass
Megan Pampling oboe
Dylan Slater electric guitar
Tim Wickham violin
Program
Jürg Frey, Récit des sensations fragiles (2024)
This concert is generously supported by the Department of the Exterior.
Ensemble Contrechamps is also supported by
Duration: 60 min, no interval
Photo credit: Guillaume Collignon
ARTIST Learn more about the artist
Artist Ensemble Contrechamps
Ensemble Contrechamps is an ensemble of soloists specialized in creating, developing and disseminating instrumental music of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The Ensemble is dedicated to highlighting the diversity of aesthetics and formats making up the contemporary and experimental scene. For over 40 years the Ensemble Contrechamps has been working hand in hand with a large number of composers, conductors and artists – Rebecca Saunders, Pierre Boulez, Chiyoko Szlavnics, Christine Sun Kim, Michael Jarrell, Jacques Demierre, Olga Kokcharova, Sofia Jernberg, Vimbayi Kaziboni or Heinz Holliger, among others. The Ensemble also showcases the multiple skills and unique talents of its member musicians.
Contrechamps strives to develop fresh formats such as installation-performances, radiophonic concerts, research laboratories or collaborative processes. The Ensemble is a hybrid, both orchestra and collective, which enables it to adapt to a variety of artistic constraints and to the proposals of the artists it works with. Within this context, Contrechamp’s partnership with the Geneva Haute école de musique is meaningful inasmuch as it allows its members to remain in touch with the freshest ideas, as well as impart their expertise to coming generations.
Recognized for its work and invited to perform on international stages, Contrechamps regularly appears at events such as Ultima in Oslo, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Venice Biennale, and Ircam-Centre Pompidou in Paris.
The Ensemble’s many partners in Geneva include La Bâtie, Archipel, the Grand Théâtre, the Ensemble Vide, the OCG, the Théâtre Am Stram Gram, the ADC,the cave12 and the St. Pierre Cathedral. Contrechamps has performed on a variety of stages throughout Switzerland like the Gare du Nord in Basel, Schauspielhaus in Zurich or Plateforme 10 in Lausanne, to name just a handful.
A colorful outreach program and exciting educational activities involving schools and museums allow our musicians to impart their passion to a public of all ages and from all walks of life, and to enrich and fortify the local cultural fabric. Contrechamps Editions publish significant books on contemporary music.
The Ensemble has made over twenty recordings and, since last season, has been offering a new collection of vinyls on its own Contrechamps label in collaboration with Speckled-Toshe.
Ensemble Contrechamps is supported by
Photo credit: Guillaume Collignon
Artist Lyrebird Brass
Comprising some of Australia’s top brass musicians, Lyrebird Brass is a collective of artists dedicated to performing the finest brass chamber music. The group’s mission is twofold: to engage Australian audiences through exceptional artistry and accessible programming, and to expand repertoire through new commissions with a particular emphasis on Australian music and works by composers from underrepresented demographics. Members have performed across the globe in many of the world’s premiere ensembles, each bringing a unique musical background to the troupe. Lyrebird Brass is the first professional Australian brass ensemble to feature women as core members.
The name ‘Lyrebird Brass’ is a homage to a unique songbird native to the ensemble’s hometown of Melbourne. Lyrebirds are known for singing for hours each day in a combination of their own distinctive song and mimicked noises and can even vocalise multiple melodies simultaneously. The name is also a reference to Éditions de l’Oiseau-Lyre (Lyrebird Press), part of Louise Hanson-Dyer’s legacy which has so benefited the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music where each member teaches.
Artists: Carla Blackwood (horn), Joel Brennan (trumpet), Rosie Turner (trumpet), Don Immel (trombone), Alex Jeantou (tuba).
Photo credit: Mads Sørensen
Artist James Crabb
Scottish born James Crabb is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading classical accordionists. He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen with accordion pioneer Mogens Ellegaard, became professor there from 1995 until 2010, and was awarded the prestigious Carl Nielsen Music Prize, Denmark in 1991. He also held a long-standing guest professorship at the University in Graz, Austria.
James has collaborated with many of the most important 20th and 21st century composers including Sofia Gubaidulina, Thomas Adès, Harrison Birtwistle, Sally Beamish, Luciano Berio and has premiered countless concertos, chamber music and solo works dedicated to him. Recognised internationally as an authority on the music of Astor Piazzolla he was invited to curate the inaugural Piazzolla Festival in Buenos Aires in 2016. James has given the world premiere of Brett Dean’s accordion concerto The Players in Sweden, (recorded on the BIS label) and featured in the on-stage role in Dean’s opera Hamlet with Glyndebourne Opera, Cologne Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, Munich, at Adelaide Festival and for Opera Australia. Recent and upcoming projects include returns to the ACO, the AFCM, the UK for performances, including at Wigmore Hall, with Anthony Marwood and recitals at numerous music festivals around Australia.
James is a passionate and sought-after music educator and mentor, and whilst Artistic Director of the Four Winds Festival in Bermagui, curated both the Easter and inaugural Youth Festivals and developed the local school’s music education program.
Photo credit: Christoffer Askman