Richard Vella
Richard Vella writes with a sharp ear for colour and drive. His guitar piece Mirrors of Fire rides a relentless walking bass; the clarinet Tango is flamboyant and free; Memory Pieces let the piano glance back at Czerny, mazurka and cinema.
Mirrors of Fire, written for Timothy Kain, never loses its focus: octatonic fragments grind under the surface while the guitar keeps moving. The Tango for clarinet and piano grew from shared improvisations and treats the clarinet as a showpiece of texture and swagger, full of glissandi and multiphonics. On the piano, the Memory Pieces cycle (1980-85) turns reminiscence into form, nodding to etudes, dance and the screen without settling into pastiche. A Prelude for solo guitar belongs to the same body of work that players take up for its bite and theatrical flair.
Compositions by Richard Vella appear on
Mirrors of Fire
Every now and then a CD comes along that makes you glad to be alive: the music is so infectious and the performances brilliant. This is one such disc, featuring Timothy Kain, Australia’s virtuoso guitarist.
A Day in the Life of a Clarinet
Peter Jenkin presents the clarinet in its many modern guises, equally at home with Alban Berg, multi-tracked Bach, klezmer, tango, jazz and electronics.
The Hands the Dream
Sydney pianist Daniel Herscovitch specialises in contemporary repertoire. This debut disc presents solo piano works he has chosen by six Australian composer colleagues.
Producer: Assistant Producer