Resonate Magazine | Australian Music Centre

Image: Stephen Adams  

This February on ABC Classic FM we present several special Australian music broadcast events, including the opening of the Melbourne Recital Centre with a new work from Peter Sculthorpe, the Gala Grand Final of the performing Australian Music Competition from Australia House in London and, from the Perth Concert Hall, the final concert of Crossing Roper Bar, an epic tour and cross-cultural collaboration between the Australian Art Orchestra and Indigenous musicians.

In the AMU podcast this month, we present recordings from recent New Music Network concerts. To subscribe, please follow this link (podcast feed).

In Performance

Monday 2 February 8pm – WASO Chamber Players; John Harding, violin/director.
Incl. Colin Brumby – The Phoenix and the Turtle

Saturday 7 February 8pm – Performing Australian Music Competition (PAMC) 2008: Gala Grand Final.
At this, the second PAMC, six finalists were chosen from 82 performers from around the world. Each performer in the competition performed a program of Australian works along with complementary works from the core repertoire for their instrument.
Marco Pop Ristov (Macedonia), violin: Peter Sculthorpe – Irkanda I; Sadie Harrison – Spring: Father’s Orchard.
Elena Xanthoudakis (Australia), soprano; Charlotte Forrest, piano: Ron MacKenzie – The Presences; Peggy Glanville-Hicks – Come Sleep; Horace Keats – O deep and dewy hour; Keith Humble – Selected cabaret songs; Percy Grainger – Come Sleep.
Jacob Cordover (Australia), guitar: Ross Edwards – Blackwattle Caprices; Phillip Houghton – Stele: I ('Stele') & II ('Dervish').
Mi Zhou (China), cello; Daniel Tong, piano: Julian Yu – Dovetailing, Op 29; Don Kay – The Legend of Moinee: II, Love Voice of Moinee.
Yvonne Paterson (Scotland), flute; Scott Mitchell, piano: Brenton Broadstock – Aureole I; Ross Edwards – Nura: II, Earth Dance.
Eleanor Smith (Australia), piano: Margaret Sutherland – Chiaroscuro II; Carl Vine – Piano Sonata No 2: 2nd movt.
Recorded in April 2008 at Australia House, London. Recording courtesy of the organisers.

Sunday 8 February 7.30pm – Melbourne Recital Centre Opening
Live broadcast from the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre: Gidon Kremer, violin; Michael Collins, clarinet; Piers Lane, piano; Goldner String Quartet; Victorian Opera Chorus; Guy du Blêt, percussion.
Incl. Peter Sculthorpe – Song of the Yarra (world premiere)

Monday 9 February 7.30pm – Musica Viva Australia 2009 Season Opener
Live broadcast from the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre: Kremerata Baltica; Gidon Kremer, violin/director.
Incl. Carl Vine – Smith’s Alchemy (arrangement of String Quartet No 3)

Thursday 12 January 7.15pm – Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
John Chen, piano; Oleg Caetani, conductor.
The first of two concerts in which the MSO celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Tonight, a recreation of the opening concert on 12 February, 1959.
Incl. Robert Hughes – Essay for Orchestra

Friday 20 February 8pm Musica Viva Australia: Stephen Hough, piano
Incl. Ross Edwards – Kumari

Saturday 21 February 8pm Adelaide Symphony Orchestra; Kirill Gerstein, piano; Arvo Volmer, conductor.
Incl. Andrew Schultz – Ghosts of Reason, Symphony No 2

Wednesday 25 February 8pm – Musica Viva Australia: Kremerata Baltica
Gidon Kremer, violin/director.
Incl. Carl Vine – Smith’s Alchemy (arrangement of String Quartet No 3)

Saturday Session

Saturday 21 February 3pm – Seraphim Trio: Helen Ayres, violin; Anna Goldsworthy, piano; Timothy Nankervis, cello.
Incl. Anne Boyd – Seraphim Canticles: Holy Love (world premiere)

New Music Up Late

Saturday 7 February 10.30pm – Crossing Roper Bar
Tonight we present the results of a unique meeting of Australian Indigenous and Western music. Last winter Paul Grabowsky and the Australian Art Orchestra, singer Ruby Hunter and traditional songmen of Ngukurr in East Arnhem Land toured together across northern Australia from Darwin through the Kimberley and on to Perth. This tour was the culmination of a collaboration begun during the Art Orchestra’s first visit to Arnhem Land in 2005. Tonight we present the final concert of the Crossing Roper Bar tour, recorded live at the Perth Concert Hall.

Saturday 21 February 10.30pm – Off The Record: Kate Moore
Julian Day talks to young expatriate composer Kate Moore about her music and experiences in the Netherlands, plays tracks of her music and of her contemporaries in The Hague.

At Home

Australian music from disc with Julian Day, Saturdays at 7.05pm

7 February at 7.05pm
Stephen Leek – Ngana; Paul Stanhope – Phospheric Variations; Philip Houghton – News From Nowhere ; Elena Kats-Chernin – Character Interludes; Tim Hansen – Earwig

21 February at 7.05pm
Graeme Koehne – Powerhouse (Rhumba for Orchestra); Graeme Koehne – 3 Poems of Byron; Nigel Westlake – Tall Tales; Margaret Legge Wilkinson – Tall Trees

28 February at 7.05pm
Ian Munro – Blue Rags: 'Mississippi Zez'; Gerard Brophy – Concerto In Blue; Graham Koehne – Blues; Elena Kats-Chernin – Chamber of Horrors