TALL POPPIES RECORDS New and classical music by Australian composers and performers

The Emerald Phoenix

In 2014 Tall Poppies released The Emerald Leopard (TP233), with Brooke Green’s music for soprano and viols. The Emerald Phoenix presents her recent works for soprano, viols and theorbo, featuring Josie Ryan and bass violist Laura Vaughan.

Josie and the Emeralds ensemble
Josie Ryan soprano
Laura Vaughan bass viol
Brooke Green composer
Richard Sumarte composer
Robert Stevenson composer

The music serves very contemporary Australian subjects, among them the story of Mungo Lady and the detention of refugees. A phoenix rising from the ashes shapes a wider theme of transformation: hope after sorrow, triumph over adversity.

Drawn to ancient myths and legends, uppity women and lost manuscripts, Brooke Green’s writing builds new repertoire for the viol and turns attention to Australia’s suppressed or forgotten histories.

The disc closes with her remarkable completion of Dr Robert Stevenson’s late-1500s set of seven Misereres, which survive without the two treble parts.

Artist

No photograph: Josie and the Emeralds

Josie and the Emeralds

Josie and the Emeralds is a Sydney early-music ensemble founded in 2011, uniting soprano with viol consort in Renaissance song and new Australian writing for the viol.

Tracks

  1. Singing Mungo Lady Brooke Green 5:58
  2. Phoenix Chaconne Brooke Green 4:42
  3. Spears Brooke Green 2:58
  4. Reza Barati Brooke Green 4:31
  5. Hamed Shamshirpour Brooke Green 2:41
  6. Shamim Brooke Green 4:21
  7. Batoh Brooke Green 5:02
  8. Salacia Brooke Green 5:52
  9. The Dream Brooke Green 4:41
  10. Empress Ki Brooke Green 4:04
  11. Daphne Richard Sumarte 3:05
  12. The Spirit of Daphne Brooke Green 6:43
  13. Midsummer Love Brooke Green 3:15
  14. Chavela Brooke Green 1:57

    15. Dr Stevenson’s Medley Brooke Green Robert Stevenson

  15. Convocation 2:17
  16. Consternation 1:02
  17. Consolation 2:55
  18. Campanology 1:48
  19. Cogitation :57
  20. Kite-Flying 2:59
  21. Cuckoo 1:13

Performers

Composers

No photograph: Brooke Green

Brooke Green

Brooke Green writes and arranges for soprano and viols, folding Renaissance song into new consort music that carries Dorothy Porter, boatpeople laments and forgotten Australian histories into dark, close-voiced shimmer.

No photograph: Robert Stevenson

Robert Stevenson

No photograph: Richard Sumarte

Richard Sumarte

Where to listen

The Emerald Phoenix 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
TP271
Total playing time
73 minutes 1 seconds
Release date
Label
Tall Poppies
Musical work
copyright
© Mal Finch
Sound recording
copyright
℗ Mal Finch
Categories
Australian Classics, Great Classics
Genres
Contemporary Classical, Vocal & Opera

Related recordings

Front cover art for The Emerald Leopard

The Emerald Leopard

Josie and the Emeralds pair acclaimed early-music soprano Josie Ryan with some of Australia’s finest viol players, the Emerald City Viols. Founded in 2011, the group is known for sophisticated performances and inventive programmes of Renaissance and contemporary works, including compositions and arrangements by director Brooke Green.

Front cover art for Musica Viva: 60th Anniversary, Selected Commissions 1975–2004

Musica Viva: 60th Anniversary, Selected Commissions 1975–2004

This disc marks sixty years of Musica Viva Australia’s work commissioning Australian chamber music. Since 1945 the organisation had helped bring nearly a hundred new works into being, building a distinctive national repertoire. A full list of those commissions is included with the CD.