Mark Gasser was something of a saviour for the 16th Annual Australian Festival of Chamber Music according to festival organisers. Mark joined fellow world renowned pianists Sergei Babyan (USA), Pascal Roge (France) , Meng Chieh Liu (Tiawan) and Ami Hakuno (Japan) to work alongside the best soloists on there respective instruments with the apt slogan “Experience the world’s best – Live!”.

Some pieces, unable to be learnt by other pianists, were looking like they might not be performed in the festival until Mark agreed to work tirelessly night and day to learn the works.

“Time was very tight as sometimes only had a few hours to learn each work but the festival was great fun and I made a lot of new friends,” said Mark.

Festival organisers were more than grateful to Mark for his outstanding efforts.

“Mark played many, many pieces with only a limited time to prepare,” said Chris Latham, Artistic Director of the Festival.

“His contribution towards the festival was exceptional”.

Works performed by Gasser included repertoire as diverse as the Brahms C Minor Piano Quartet, Schulhoff’s Hot Sonata with Catherine McCorkhill (Australian Premier), Kats-Chernin’s enigmatic “The Sprit and the Maiden”, Dresher’s haunting Double Ikat (Australian Premier) with fellow virtuosos Claire Edwards (percussion) and Ian Swensen (violin).

As well as Cowell’s ferociously difficult “Set of Five” with Graeme Jennings and Ian Brunskill, he performed Ross Edwards The “Water Circle” (World Premier) which was a collaboration with Peter Garett and almost all of the festival musicians. This was set to the backdrop of a specially commissioned film.

Mark ended the work with 12 minutes of solo piano music in some of Ross Edwards most profoundly beautiful music to date.

All of the concerts will be broadcast nationally on the ABC for the next couple of years and a DVD of the “water cycle” is available from the AFCM website.

Photo above: Mark Gasser saves the day at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music!