Excerpt 1: Warren Burt, Drowning (1978), solo cello and electronic tape.
Excerpt 2: Christoph Demantius, Opening from: St John Passion (1631).

From the Concert at Cairns Memorial Church, East Melbourne.
Tuesday April 10, 1979.

ST JOHN PASSION (1631), Christoph Demantius first Australian performance
EASTER DIALOGUES (C.1640), Johann Schein

The Astra Choir with ensemble conducted by John McCaughey
Christian Wojtowicz (solo cello), Simone de Haan (solo trombone)

Click here for photographs of the performance and information about the Cairns Memorial Church.

For 30 years, the concerts of Astra Chamber Music Society have ranged around Melbourne’s architectural environment. Each concert has had a site-specific design that takes advantage of the marvellous visual qualities, spatial possibilities, and acoustic personality of each building. The music, in turn, contributes a new quality to the perception of the buildings, now experienced by audiences as a sounding space - an area where cultural issues from music’s history are traversed, and new ideas in Australian composition are explored.