The premiere of Andrew Schultz’s new Bassoon Concerto, performed by bassoonist Jane Kircher-Lindner with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Asher Fisch in their Symphonic Titans program at the Perth Concert Hall on Friday 2 June and Saturday 3 June 2023. An “ecstatically buoyant solo part which Jane Kircher-Lindner despatched with consummate fluency and dynamism” (Limelight), with “Kircher-Linder progressing like a Disney princess in an enchanted forest” (The West Australian), in such an “attractive and original work that deserves to become a part of the standard repertoire” (Limelight).
Bassoon Concerto is a three-movement work for solo bassoon and full orchestra with a duration of about 21 minutes. The work was commissioned for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra by Geoff Stearn and written in very close collaboration with the orchestra’s Principal Bassoon and the soloist in the work’s premiere, Jane Kircher-Lindner. Bassoon Concerto was written in the second half of 2022 during which time Andrew was the Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser Visiting Professor of Australian Studies in the Music Department at Harvard University and living in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Jane Kircher-Lindner (photo credit: WASO by Daniel Grant)
Jane Kircher-Lindner was originally from Christchurch, New Zealand. She moved to Perth in 2006 to take up the Principal Bassoon position with WASO. Prior to this she was Principal Bassoon with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra from 2003-2006. She has also performed with the Melbourne, Queensland and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras.
Jane has appeared three times as a soloist with WASO, most recently in 2022 performing Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante. She also performs with a variety of chamber ensembles and has recorded for ABC Classic FM. In demand as a teacher, she teaches bassoon at the University of Western Australia and the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts.
Jane completed her undergraduate studies at Victoria University of Wellington. After receiving several prestigious scholarships, she continued her post-graduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music in New York, where she graduated with a Master of Music in Orchestral Performance. Her teachers in New York included Whitney Crockett and Patricia Rogers (Metropolitan Opera Orchestra) and Frank Morelli (Orpheus Chamber Orchestra).
To read the Sounds & Stories discussion of the creation of the work, click here.
To read the Limelight Magazine article about the Bassoon Concerto, click here.
To read the review in Limelight Magazine, click here.
To read the review in THE WEST AUSTRALIAN, click here.
To read an article by the composer, “The Right Note,” in Resonate Magazine, about the background to the work, click here.
To read more about Bassoon Concerto on this website, click here.
To hear the ABC Classic FM broadcast of the premiere of the work, click here (available until 10 August 2023).
Jane Kircher-Lindner and Andrew Schultz on-stage with WASO (photo credit: Gavin Fernie, ABC)
Brief audio rough-cuts from the premiere
Bassoon Concerto, two excerpts from Movement 1, Misterioso (beginning and middle)
Bassoon Concerto, two excerpts from Movement 2, Exquisite Aeon (near the beginning and near the end)
Bassoon Concerto, three excerpts from Movement 3, Sable Island Gallop (near the beginning, the middle and the end)