Voices
Composer–pianist Roger Smalley presents a personal recital of lean, often quiet Australian piano works from the 1960s and 1970s, many appearing on CD here for the first time.
Ross Edwards composer
Anne Boyd composer
Michael Hannan composer
David Lumsdaine composer
Roger Smalley composer
The programme is shaped by Smalley’s own taste and touch. At its centre stands David Lumsdaine’s long meditation on the final chorus of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Ruhe sanfte, sanfte ruh'. Around it sit works by Margaret Sutherland, Ross Edwards, Anne Boyd and Michael Hannan. The disc closes with Smalley’s own brief Piano Pieces I–V.
Reviews
…the whole recital is characterised by leanness and quietness, suited to Smalley’s pensive pianism.
…Roger Smalley is a composer who plays the piano… this is first-rate playing…it concentrates on important Australian works of the 1960s and 1970s. The title Voices. is taken from a gritty little piece by Margaret Sutherland that adds to the picture of this composer as the country's most neglected major figure (when will the situation be rectified?).… the piece [David Lumsdaine's Ruhe sanfte, sanfte ruh'] is a meditation on the final chorus of Bach's St Matthew Passion, and Smalley's performance of it is little short of magisterial: virtuosic when required to be, Smalley lingers over the opening chords of the Bach which also open Lumsdaine's work, reappearing as a tugging ritornello throughout the elaborate 19-minute movement. In Smalley's performance, it's as though the spirit of Bach were hovering over the piece.… Voices is one of the best compilations of Australian music I can think of. It doesn't, perhaps, summarise the current state of the art, but it certainly encapsulates the trends and tendencies (and some of the very best pieces) that immediately predate today's musical tastes.
Artist
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.
Tracks
- Voices I Margaret Sutherland 4:54
- i. 5:31
- ii. 3:01
- Monos II Ross Edwards 4:26
- Angklung Anne Boyd 9:26
- i. Celestial Ground 2:59
- ii. Earth Song 2:49
- iii. Perpetual Inversion 2:50
- Ruhe Sanfte, sanfte ruh' David Lumsdaine 18:31
- i. :58
- ii. 1:43
- iii. :58
- iv. 1:01
- v. 1:29
Kumari Ross Edwards
Resonances I Michael Hannan
Piano Pieces I–V Roger Smalley
Performers
- Roger Smalley · piano
Composers
Anne Boyd
Anne Boyd enjoys a distinguished career as a composer and music educator. A graduate of the University of Sydney (BA Hons in Music, 1967) and the University of York (PhD in composition, 1972), she has shaped Australian musical life through both her writing and her teaching.
Ross Edwards
One of Australia's best known and most performed composers, Ross Edwards lives and works in Sydney. His commitment to music as a positive and regenerative force has led him to explore beyond the confines of Western art music.
Michael Hannan
Michael Hannan (born 1949) is an Australian composer, pianist and musicologist. His work ranges from concert music and layered piano-interior soundscapes to shorter character pieces, alongside a substantial body of writing on Australian composition.
Margaret Sutherland
Margaret Sutherland (1897–1984) was an Australian composer whose work ranged across almost every form, with a particular gift for chamber music. She remains one of the most distinctive voices in twentieth-century Australian composition.
David Lumsdaine
David Lumsdaine’s music binds serial craft to Australian landscape and birdsong, from the Bach-haunted piano meditation Ruhe sanfte, sanfte ruh’ to the dense cello concerto A Garden of Earthly Delights and pure field recordings of bush dawn choruses.
Where to listen
Voices is available for streaming through Apple Music. It can also be purchased through the iTunes Music Store.
Voices 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
- TP060
- Total playing time
- 60 minutes 36 seconds
- Release date
- 5 Aug 1995
- Label
- Tall Poppies
- Sound recording
copyright - ℗ 1995 Tall Poppies Records
- Category
- Voice / Soundscape
- Genres
- Contemporary Classical, Modernist Classical
- Barcode
- EAN 9399000006022
Related recordings
Transformation: Music for Percussion, Piano and Electronics
Roger Smalley was one of Australia’s most respected composers. He eschewed popular styles and left an oeuvre that is both thrilling and challenging, always at the highest musical level.
The Metallic Violins
This CD is crammed with world premiere performances and scintillating playing. These two violinists inspired wonderful new works by Australian composers, yielding the first recording of Australian music for two violins, from Hindson’s raunchy title piece to Finsterer’s dreamy Spherica I.
Electric Cello
David Pereira plays solo Australian cello works, each scored for cello with pre-recorded tape or delay. The Wesley-Smith and Ford pieces are world premiere recordings.
An Australian Collection
Nineteen tracks drawn from the Tall Poppies catalogue, chosen to show the range and depth of Australian composition and performance across the label’s first decade.
Spinning: New Australian Flute Music
Geoffrey Collins has single-handedly shaped the Australian flute repertoire, and this is his third solo recording. Five of these works were written for him, and they show how freely composers respond to his playing.
A Patchwork of Shadows
In 1994 Ian Munro was one of only two or three major pianists based in Australia. Passionate about the music of his composer peers, he shaped one of the most carefully chosen programmes then available on disc.