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by Amanda Wong, 2026 Media and Communication Fellow
What do you get when you combine the Australian Youth Orchestra’s Momentum Ensemble + celebrated saxophonist Jonathan Radford + renowned mathematician Professor Yang-Hui He?
There was a distinct anticipation crackling in the air of QPAC’s Playhouse theatre as it filled up with buzzing concertgoers ready to hear this collaboration. The group, led by concertmaster Eliza Scott, soloist Radford and conductor Nathaniel Griffiths, brought to life “Beautiful Equations”—a concert program inspired by the relationship between music and mathematics. Fittingly, this interdisciplinary-inspired initiative was included as a part of the 11th World Science Festival Brisbane.
Alex Baranowski’s Musica Universalis (arranged by Radford) opened the concert with a wondrous and calm ambience. Inspired by the “harmony of the spheres”, Musica Universalis highlights the notion of a universal harmony derived from mathematical relationships and ratios connecting sound, colour and shape. A singular pulsing note in Edmund Mantelli’s viola kept the piece grounded yet moving as the ensemble organically shaped and developed harmony around this pulse. The sensitive resonance of Radford’s alto saxophone drifted above the warm ebb and flow in the strings as a complementing screen projection travelled through the universe. Although short in its length, Musica Universalis provided a reflective and welcoming introduction to the evening’s mathematically-inspired program.
Concert presenter Professor Yang-Hui He (a self-confessed “groupie to musicians”) spoke with tangible passion and humour as he delivered short lectures to contextualise the program’s pieces. After a brief lecture on Pythagoras and fractions, and their connections to intervals, tonality, temperament and tuning (obligingly demonstrated by cellist James Munro), the program moved on to two movements from Elena Kats-Chernin’s Re-inventions after Bach for saxophone and string ensemble (specially arranged by Radford).
In this work, Kats-Chernin “re-invents” and develops material from Bach’s Inventions for new audiences. The first movement (based on Invention No. 8 in F major) provided a musical feast for the ears as the musicians brought to life her playful style and signature mastery over textures and ideas. Radford’s versatility on the saxophone was nothing short of miraculous—his opening sound was reminiscent of a recorder as they launched into the movement’s bubbling textures and insistent energy. The projection screen featured an animation of the Fibonacci sequence; calling to mind naturally-occurring proportion and a sense of order—a concept of which (according to Yang-Hui He) complemented Bach’s own writing.
After a short lecture on Bach, the golden ratio, and the relationship between Diophantine Approximation and tonality (with an impressive demonstration of a quarter-tone scale by Radford), the ensemble dove into Kats-Chernin’s dark and deft third movement inspired by Invention No. 13 in A minor. The saxophone and violins scurried over a doom-laden descending pattern in the lower strings, and the audience was treated to a lively journey through harmony and the movement’s redeveloping sequences and motifs (not too dissimilar from how patterns are transformed in maths).
The concert progressed onwards to the neoclassical Concerto in D (‘Basle’) by Stravinsky. Masterfully led by concertmaster Scott, the Momentum Ensemble executed its first movement with panache—playing with professional assuredness and crystal-clear intention as they leaned into the interplay between its jagged and angular first theme with the more lyrical second theme. Audiences could fully appreciate the work’s overall structure with its almost mathematical fragmentation, reorganisation and development of musical patterns and ideas. Stravinsky’s second movement, Arioso, had listeners swaying in their seats with its off-kilter lilt and Hollywood-esque vibrato in the violins. The ensemble swiftly launched into the dark and driving third movement of the work. Violinists Scott and Morgan Ip delivered a joint solo with flair. The “chamber-aspect” of Momentum shone in particular during this piece—one could tangibly sense the players’ connection to each other through their shared glances, unified physical movements and infectious energy. The ensemble concluded the concerto with a final D major chord; their bows high up in the air, triumphant.
The evening progressed onto what was undoubtedly the beating heart of the program—the Australian premiere of Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s Concerto for saxophone and strings: Three Mathematical Diversions. Her concerto (originally written for Radford) is influenced by ground-breaking mathematical concepts brought up in her conversations with Professor Yang-Hui He.
The concerto’s first movement (entitled The search for ein stein) is inspired by the long-awaited discovery of the Ein-stein tile—a singular thirteen-sided tile which is able to infinitely create patterns in any direction without repeating. Frances-Hoad portrays the search and discovery of this tile and its aperiodic nature through a wandering, lilting melody in the saxophone (captured beautifully through Radford’s dulcet tones) accompanied by ever-changing (and non-repeating) chords in the strings. This opening movement was full of personality; with sighing glissandos (representing the “morphing tile”) and quirky interplay. Conductor Nathaniel Griffiths guided the ensemble through this “mathematical diversion” with unified ease.
The concerto’s second movement, Elliptic murmurations is based on the ever-moving patterns from elliptic curves generated in Professor Yang-Hui He’s own research. He reminiscently compared it with the synchronised movement of starlings as they create complex shifting patterns in flight. Like birds travelling in their own flock, the players responded with a similar sensitivity to each other and Radford—there was a contained energy in the strings as they played an undulating “murmuration” pattern beneath the lyrical (and sometimes nimble) passages in Radford’s soprano saxophone. Together with conductor Griffiths, the musicians soared to new heights.
The third and final movement of Frances-Hoad’s concerto, The theories of everything, draws upon one of Keats’ poems and the longstanding hunt to find a single equation that can tie together two ground-breaking theories of the universe. A dissonant major-seventh interval—first introduced in the tubular bells (played by percussionist Bryn Wood)—represents this seemingly uncrossable distance between the two theories. Radford deftly joined with sorrowful, wandering lines and a fine virtuosity in its excited ebb and flow—with the ensemble faithfully navigating along. Oliver Murphy executed a stunning double bass solo in the upper extremes of the instrument; his fingers dancing close to its bridge. The full concerto came to a close as the notes in the major-seventh interval came to a resolve (yet still co-existing)—the two theories finally bridged together into one beautiful equation.
This was followed by Radford’s arrangement of A Brief History of Time: Signature by composer Phillip Glass. The piece draws on the metaphysical notions of time and space with its repeating musical patterns and their gradual shifts and development—drawing listeners into a trance where time seemed to move differently. Radford’s saxophone caressed over gently lulling waves.
Beautiful Equations presented a thoughtfully curated program enhanced by its spoken introductions and excellent musical performance. Through the contextualisation of the music through a mathematical lens, listeners were able to deeply appreciate and engage with the pieces from a new, refreshing perspective. This collaboration between AYO’s Momentum Ensemble, Radford, and Yang-Hui He revealed how interdisciplinary collaboration can create something greater than the sum of its parts—tonight it created something that spoke not only to shared ideas in maths and music, but also in humanity and the beauty of the world around us.
In a full-circle moment that Greek mathematician Archimedes would be proud of, Radford and the Momentum Ensemble brought listeners back to earth with a surprise final piece—Baronowki’s Reflections. With a return of the universe animation onscreen, the music slowly unfolded in its beautiful patterns as the dolce tone of the soprano saxophone soared over the ensemble’s waltzing lilt and a shimmering, living tremolo in the upper strings. Reflections faded back to stillness, ending the concert on an introspective note.
Momentum Ensemble performed Beautiful Equations at the Playhouse Theatre, QPAC in Brisbane on Thursday 26 March 2026.