Resonate Magazine | Australian Music Centre

The Anzac centenary on 25 April is the focus of a raft of new Australian works on air this month from composers taking stock in one way or another of the meaning of this significant national anniversary.

Two special studio projects that have their premieres on Anzac Day are 'Gallipoli Songs' and 'Meeting the Sun'. The Gallipoli Songs competition was an ABC Classic FM initiative in association with Radio NZ Concert and with the support of the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) inviting composers to write new vocal chamber works setting letters, diary entries and other personal writings of the Gallipoli participants and their loved ones. The six winning works, by Constantine Koukias, Melody Eötvös, Martin Greet, Peter McNamara, Andrew Baldwin (NZ), and Aristea Mellos, are in the process of being recorded by a line-up of leading Melbourne-based musicians and post-produced for broadcast at 7pm on the evening of Anzac Day.

Another special studio project for the centenary was the partnership of the Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway (Concord, Sydney) with the NSW Department of Veterans Affairs, the Royal Australian Navy Band, Gondwana Voices and ABC Classic FM. The partnership resulted in a new five-movement work Meeting the Sun for military band and youth choir by Elena Kats-Chernin, celebrating a hundred years of service and the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two. The work has been recorded in the ABC's Sydney studios and will go to air on Anzac Day following the Afternoon Concert.

Orchestras around the country are also marking the centenary of Anzac with special concert programs, including several major premieres. The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents a new ceremonial oratorio by Iain Grandage and librettist Kate Mulvany as the centrepiece of an almost all-Australian program conducted by Grandage. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra takes a trans-Tasman approach with a new work from James Ledger (with words by Paul Kellly) and the Australian premiere of music by New Zealander Michael F Williams (setting the words of the Anzac soldiers themselves) - two quite different approaches to reflecting on the impact of international conflict, surrounded by music of the time.

The Australian Chamber Orchestra presents two new Gallipoli works by Carl Vine, alongside Frederick Septimus Kelly's Elegy (100 years old this year) and arrangements of Turkish music by Cyrus Meurant. The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra's 'Remembrance' is a new long-form commemorative work by Richard Mills with Rodney Hall, incorporating songs and poems of a century ago. And the orchestra's Elgar program delivers the Australian premiere of a recent World War I work by Andrew Schultz, the penultimate movement of the 10-composer, 10-movement Gallipoli Symphony premiering in Istanbul and coming to Australia later this year. (The symphony will feature movements by Turkish composers Demir Demirkan, Kamran İnce, and Omar Faruk Tekbilek, New-Zealanders Gareth Farr, Richard Nunns and Ross Harris, and Australian composers Peter Sculthorpe, Graeme Koehne, Elena Kats-Chernin and Andrew Schultz.)

FS Kelly and his Elegy are also celebrated in a Music Makers feature for Anzac Day by Martin Buzacott. And feature segments from Buzacott's new ABC Classics two-CD release Anzac Voices: Gallipoli from those who were there will be heard across the week running up to the anniversary pairing archival Anzac voices with music of the period. But the Anzac Centenary is not the only event in town with new Australian music on show. ABC Classic FM's Easter programs include the Good Friday broadcast of a Sydney Chamber Choir concert presenting the world premiere of Joseph Twist's Ubi Caritas. The following week Ensemble Offspring and Ironwood ensemble join forces to perform the world premiere of Uncovered Ground by Felicity Wilcox. And the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra premiere music by Nicholas Buc.

In the middle of the month concerts from the Musica Viva Festival and the Port Fairy Spring festival include plenty of new and old Australian compositions. And on Saturday nights following the Evening Concert presenter Graham Abbott selects the music, including substantial new and old Australian works from disc and ABC radio recordings.

Online the New Waves podcast completes the MESMERISM series before focusing in on Anzac with podcasts of Gallipoli Songs music and interviews. And there'll be more new music in the Rewind collection coming shortly.

Australian music broadcast schedule

Friday 3 April
8.00pm EVENINGS: Sydney Chamber Choir; Paul Stanhope, conductor
Includes Joseph Twist - Ubi Caritas (world premiere); Brenton Broadstock - 'The Resurrection' (movement XV) from Stations of the Cross; Paul Stanhope - Elegies and Dances.

Saturday 4 April
10.00pm EVENINGS: Tracks following 8pm concert to include Percy Grainger - Blithe Bells (solo piano version); Moya Henderson - Verklärung: Ecstatic Dances for Cello; Alfred Hill - String Quartet No 12

Tuesday 7 April
8.00pm EVENINGS: Ensemble Offspring and Ironwood
Includes Felicity Wilcox - Uncovered Ground (world premiere); Damien Ricketson - Trace Elements; Mary Finsterer - Silva.

Friday 10 April
10.00pm EVENINGS: Penelope Thwaites, piano
Includes Percy Grainger A Bridal Lullaby; Arrival Platform Humlet; Irish Tune from County Derry. (ABC Classic FM studio recording, 21/3/2013)

Saturday 11 April
2.00pm SATURDAY AFTERNOON: Live - Musica Viva Festival - Mischa Maisky, cello
Orava String Quartet. Includes Ross Edwards - String Quartet No 3 Summer Dances; Lachlan Skipworth - Piano Trio
10.00pm EVENINGS: Tracks following 8pm concert to include Roy Agnew - An Autumn Morning; A Child's Dream; Stuart Greenbaum - Falling by Degrees

Sunday 12 April
4.30pm SUNDAY RECITAL: Live - Musica Viva Festival - Nicolas Altstaedt, cello; Narek Arutyunian, clarinet; Daniel de Borah, piano; Bella Hristova, violin; Aleksandar Madžar, piano; Karin Schaupp, guitar; Doric String Quartet; Pavel Haas Quartet
Includes Natalie Williams - Octet

Monday 13 April
8.00pm EVENINGS: Musica Viva Festival - Karin Schaupp, guitar; Doric String Quartet
Includes Iain Grandage - Black Dogs; Carl Vine - Inner World

Wednesday 15 April
9.30pm EVENINGS: Port Fairy Spring Festival - Sally-Anne Russell, mezzo-soprano; Brass Commons. Includes Peter de Jager - Three Jimanez Songs; Callum G'Froerer - Ellington in Heaven and on Earth.

Thursdayr 16 April
9.30pm EVENINGS: Port Fairy Spring Festival - Paul Grabowsky, piano; Peter Neville, percussion; Gabriella Smart, piano; Eugene Ughetti, percussion; Timothy Young, piano; Soundstream Collective; Speak Percussion
Includes Tristram Cary - Ricercare for two pianos; James Rushford - Necrology; Paul Grabowsky - Sacred Site II.

Saturday 18 April
10.00pm EVENINGS: Tracks following 8pm concert to include John Antill - Corroboree; Becky Llewellyn - Vladimir Illyich on the Ladder of History; Moneta Eagles - Sonatina

Tuesday 21 April
8.00pm EVENINGS: Australian Chamber Orchestra; Richard Tognetti director & violin
Includes Frederick Septimus Kelly - Elegy for string orchestra In Memoriam Rupert Brooke;
Carl Vine - Soliloquy (world premiere); Our Sons (world premiere); and arrangements of Turkish music by Cyrus Meurant.

Wed 22 April
8.00pm EVENINGS: Melbourne Chamber Orchestra; Genevieve Lacey, recorder; William Hennessy, violin/director. Includes Nicholas Buc - St Mark's Scherzo

Thursday 23 April
8.00pm EVENINGS: Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra; David Hobson and artists from Victorian Opera; Richard Mills, conductor. Richard Mills (with writer Rodney Hall) - Remembrance

Friday 24 April
8.00pm EVENINGS: Adelaide Symphony Orchestra; Jud Arthur, bass-baritone; Taryn Fiebig, soprano; Elder Conservatorium Chorale; Iain Grandage, conductor;
Iain Grandage - Towards First Light (world premiere); Ross Edwards - Emerald Crossing; Carl Crossin - OAM Mater Dolorosa; Joseph Twist - Do not Stand at my Grave and Weep; Ross Edwards - White Ghost Dancing.

Saturday 25 April
12.00pm MUSIC MAKERS: 12pm: F.S. Kelly feature - new ABC Classic FM feature program on the Australian-born composer who was present en route to Gallipoli at the death of Rupert Brooke, for whom he wrote his Elegy in memoriam.
1.00pm SATURDAY AFTERNOON: Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra; Nicolas Altstaedt, cello; Garry Walker, conductor. Includes Andrew Schultz - Gallipoli Symphony: August Offensive (Australian premiere); Frederick Septimus Kelly - Elegy for string orchestra In Memoriam Rupert Brooke.

3.30pm SATURDAY AFTERNOON: Elena Kats-Chernin Meeting the Sun (world premiere). Performed by Gondwana Chamber Choir and RAN Band Ceremonial Ensemble. Commissioned by the Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway. (ABC Classic FM studio recording)

7.00pm EVENINGS: 'Gallipoli Songs'- world premiere performances of the six winning works from ABC Classic FM's Gallipoli Songs Competition, held in association with Radio NZ Concert and with the support of the Australian Department of Veterans' Affairs.
Constantine Koukias - Three Episodes (baritone, violin, trumpet and piano), text: from the Gallipoli diaries of signaller Ellis Silas
Melody Eotvos - Wakeford Songs: 1. By Train (mezzo and piano), text: letter home from Gallipoli nurse Muriel Wakeford
Martin Greet - Just Before Dawn (mezzo, trumpet and piano), text: from the Gallipoli diaries of second lieutenant Wallace Bollinger
Peter McNamara - The General's Garden (baritone and piano), text: from Gallipoli letters home by General Sir John Monash
Andrew Baldwin Dawn (baritone, violin and piano), text: from the Gallipoli diaries of signaller Ellis Silas
Aristea Mellos Wonder (baritone and piano), text: from the Gallipoli diaries of signaller Ellis Silas
Musicians: Michael Lampard, baritone; Dimity Shepherd, mezzo; Tristram Williams, trumpet; Zoe Black, violin; Leigh Harrold, piano (Koukias, Greet, Baldwin); Caroline Almonte, piano (Eötvös, McNamara, Mellos), Mario Dobernig, conductor (Koukias, Baldwin).
8.00pm EVENINGS: Sydney Symphony Orchestra; Richard Gill, conductor
Includes James Ledger - War Music (world premiere); Michael F Williams (NZ) - Letters from the Front.
10.00pm EVENINGS: Tracks following 8pm concert to include Gillian Whitehead - Manutaki

Monday 27 April
8.00pm EVENINGS: Musica Viva Tasmania - Benaud Trio
Includes Matthew Hindson - Rush