‘The perfume of the flowers merged with the odour of manzanilla, and from the bottom of raised glasses, full of the incomparable wine, like an incense, rose joy.’

– José Más, La orgía


Spanish-born Australian pianist Simón Pazos Quintana – a recent doctoral graduate of the Elder Conservatorium – is rapidly building a reputation as one of South Australia’s busiest musicians, appearing regularly as a collaborative pianist, chamber musician, recitalist, and concerto soloist. In his debut solo recital in our Elder Hall series, he performs eight vignettes from Dvořák’s rarely-heard Poetic Tone Pictures, Op. 85 (‘the great forgotten cycle of 19th-century piano music’, according to Leif Ove Andsnes) and concludes with a tour of his homeland through Turina’s irresistible Danzas fantásticas, Op. 22.