In Memoriam
Roger Smalley AM (1943–2015) shaped contemporary composition in Australia. This project grew from his dual gift as a virtuoso pianist and as a composer of visceral solo piano music.
Lydia Gardiner composer
Rebecca Erin Smith composer
Stuart James composer
Katherine Potter composer
A formidable pianist, Smalley had studied with Stockhausen, given British premiere performances of several of his Klavierstücke and, in the contemporary performance group Intermodulation, was the first to combine live electronics with transcendental pianism to extend the sonic possibilities of the instrument.
He brought that immersion in the European experimental scene to Perth, together with an appetite for new technologies and for the colours of instruments such as the Australian-made Stuart & Sons piano. This recording follows the same impulse. It presents the first recording of Smalley’s Three Studies in Black and White on that instrument.
Around that centrepiece, newly commissioned works by Lydia Gardiner, Rebecca Erin Smith and Katherine Potter unfold as a collaboration between composer, performer and piano.
Artist
Adam Pinto
Adam Pinto brings fierce rhythmic precision and a taste for extended sonority to contemporary piano music, from ring-modulated modernism to cross-genre chamber works shaped in Western Australia.
Tracks
Roger Smalley — 3 Studies in Black and White
Lydia Gardiner — 5 Stages of Grief
Rebecca Erin Smith — She Falls In
Stuart James — Negative Tendencies
Katherine Potter — Respired
Performer
- Adam Pinto · piano
Composers
Roger Smalley
Roger Smalley AM (1943–2015) was an English-born composer and pianist who made Australia his home from the mid 1970s. Composition and a distinguished life at the keyboard ran together throughout his career.
Stuart James
Stuart James is an Australian composer and recording engineer whose work pairs acoustic instruments with electronics and processing. His music often turns on texture, timbre and the shaping of time.
Rebecca Erin Smith
Rebecca Erin Smith is an award winning Australian composer who specialises in collaborative media and concert works. She works primarily with orchestra and large ensembles of acoustic instruments (at times electronically manipulated and set alight with found sounds) and the human voice, exploiting its full spectrum of sound from speech to song.
Where to listen
In Memoriam is available as a CD. It can be purchased online through Buywell Music or the Australian Music Centre which both offer online ordering.
Product details
- Catalogue number
- TP272
- Label
- Tall Poppies
- Genre
- Contemporary Classical
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