Interview with the pianist ROGER WOODWARD by ANGELA BOYD
January 2010
When I was in the USA and Canada visiting friends and family over
the Christmas period, I met up with Roger Woodward at his elegant
Park Merced home, close to the Harding Golf course and Lake Merced
and within walking distance of the Pacific Ocean. Filled with
interesting memorabilia including many photos of him with Richter,
Xenakis, Feldman, Takemitsu, Dillon, Abbado and others, as well
beautiful evocative paintings of the Australian outback, Roger
Woodward lives surrounded by his huge collection of recordings,
sheet music, miniature scores and books on music
photo of Angela Boyd and Roger Woodward (credit Daniel Morgan)
What are your most recent recordings?
In 2009, Celestial Harmonies released the Debussy Préludes; Chopin
F-minor Piano Concerto in its original quintet form coupled with
Beethoven’s Bonn-period C-major Piano Quartet, with the musicians
of the Alexander String Quartet; and in late November, Bach’s
"Das Wohltemperierte Clavier".
You received the Goethe prize for your live premiere performance
of Morton Feldman’s Piano and Orchestra with
Hans Zender for CPO Records, a Diapason d’or for
Feldman’s epic Triadic Memories; the award
of Chevalier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres for
your dedication to French music; Preis
der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik for your recording
of Bach Partitas and for your recording of the Bach “Well-Tempered
Clavier” there have been impressive reviews in the UK and Germany.
How do you feel about all that, and, is there perhaps, a
recording that remains particularly close to you?
I am amazed and delighted at the awards. As for live recordings,
I remember how pleased Xenakis was with the Claudio Abbado collaboration
on
Keqrops at the
Wien Modern and the DG recording
with the
Mahlerjugendorchester. Rich orchestral
detail and a wide range of dynamics were crystal clear and on
fine equipment the sweep of the primordial Xenakis sound remained
vivid. Studio recordings of Takemitsu, late Skryabin and Prokofiev
produced by Ralph Lane for ABC Classics remain close as does the
more recent Bach collaboration with Ulrich Kraus in Munich.
Your early 1970s recording of the Barraqué "Sonate"
for EMI and twenty-four Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues for RCA
Records won prestigious accolades and one still reads comments
regretting their non-availability in CD format. Are there any
plans for their re-release?
Yes, Celestial Harmonies is planning to release them soon.
Where did your pre-Shostakovich journey take you?
… to a progressive series of performances, articles and more recently,
a recording of experimental Russian and early Soviet piano music
that Celestial Harmonies is about to release, including works
by Aleksandr and Julian Skryabin, Boris Pasternak, Stantchinsky,
Mosolov, Roslavetz and Obukhov.
What are your most recent publications?
A monograph for the Celestial Harmonies release in November, 2009,
entitled “ In Search of a Performance Practice for
Das
Wohltemperierte Clavier";
a chapter in the
forthcoming
Xenakis Performance publication for the Pendragon
Press, New York and an autobiographical commission planned for
publication at the end of this year for the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation.
What are your next concerts?
Xenakis in New York, on January 19th; Dvorák Piano Quintet in
San Francisco, with the Alexander String Quartet on January 30th
and a recital of Debussy, Chopin and Bach, in London on March
11th, to raise funds for The Tait Memorial Trust.
What repertoire would you like to record?
The symphonic works of Iannis Xenakis - ideally, his complete
creative output; Beethoven's Sonatas and Concertos; Brahms Concertos
and late piano music; James Dillon's Five Books of Elements; J.S.
Bach's Concertos; keyboard works, the passion music, church cantatas
and B Minor Mass; Mozart and Wagner; works by Gabrieli, Schutz,
Purcell and certain orchestral works of Stravinsky, Debussy, Schoenberg,
Feldman, Takemitsu, Elgar and Jean Barraqué.
Was there a defining moment or breakthrough when you decided
that music would be your life?
There were various impressions, but the most significant was when
I first heard the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Nothing was
ever the same again. From that moment on, I knew I would live
the rest of my life with music. Not long afterwards, l began studying
the keyboard suites, "The Well-Tempered Clavier", and,
from the age of thirteen, most of the organ works, some of the
church cantatas, the passion music and B-minor Mass. Piano studies
were spent sorting out fugues whilst reading the works of earlier
and later composers. During this period l was lucky enough to
have had access to a memorable instrument with four manuals at
St Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney, and a magnificent cembalo.
The breakthrough, however, came a few years later, when I won
the Commonwealth Finals of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's
Concerto and Vocal Competition. The series of concerto and recital
appearances that followed formed part of the award and they provided
an effective transition into the profession. It was from this
time that I began playing concerts and teaching. However, this
is only half the story, because I had also been smitten by the
music of early twentieth century Russian composers, as well as
Schoenberg, Webern, Bartók, Debussy, Messiaen and the music of
Messiaen’s students - principally Xenakis, Stockhausen, Barraqué
and Boulez. I left Sydney to continue studying at the National
Chopin Academy in Warsaw where there was an annual showcase of
new music called the "Warsaw Autumn". From then on I
played what was invariably described as either "modern"
music or the "traditional” repertoire, when there seemed
to be little or no difference between the two.
Music was always new at one stage or another and it certainly
remained that way for me irrespective of when it was composed.
Some of the programmes which I enjoyed putting together were of
Frescobaldi+Gabrieli+Xenakis or Cage+Feldman+Bach or Schumann+Schubert+Schoenberg
or Beethoven+Barraqué. Nowadays, this has become normal programming,
although I enjoy directing the masterpieces of Xenakis and Bach
in addition to playing keyboard instruments.
Xenakis has dedicated three pieces to you – Keqrops
(1986); Mists for solo piano (1980) and Paille in
the Winds (1992). How would you describe Xenakis’ place
in the evolution of music?
Despite his own modest hesitations at the beginning of his career
and the pejorative comments of his detractors, Xenakis somehow
knew that he had inherited the sacred trust to carry the main
body of Occidental music into the twenty-first century in the
monumental traditions to which he belonged, spanning Josquin
to Messiaen.
It would be an understatement to add that he engendered as profound
a respect for his loyalty to human rights, as for his dedication
to developing experimental achievements in the fields of architecture,
mathematics, philosophy and music. He held a profound respect
for peace and tolerance and, above all, human rights, which
set him apart from others in the field. Takemitsu, and Feldman
both shared his lofty spirit as well as Messiaen, who staunchly
encouraged him at every turn. Like Bach before him, and despite
similar criticism, Xenakis galvanized the essential codes which
straddled two ages of thought and in this respect the two giants
greet each other across the centuries with prolific outputs
in ways that subsequently altered the destiny of western art-music.
Why have you made only two recordings of Xenakis’ music so
far – a live performance of Keqrops with Abbado in Vienna and
your own direction of Kraanerg with the musicians of the Alpha
Centauri Ensemble?
These were recorded because I felt ready to make a statement
about them and the composer was extremely pleased with both
performances. It has taken me thirty years to feel the same
way about his massive solo piano piece entitled Mists and
so I find myself only now ready to record it, although I have
recorded all his solo piano pieces at one time or another for
radio or live concert situations.
Did Morton Feldman write as extensively for you?
Yes, he composed the 90 minute Triadic Memories for me,
as well as an earlier piano piece and Piano and Orchestra.
Takemitsu also wrote various works for me all of which were
recorded by ABC Classics.
What has been your greatest challenge?
Mastering legato cantabile and the blending of sonorities
such as the final orchestral chord to the Adagio of Brahms’s
D-minor Concerto, for example. The piecing together of this
chord is orchestrally complex in performance practice and when
perfectly executed is a miracle of beauty such as when the Leipzig
Gewandhaus Orchestra performed it in a past collaboration that
still haunts me. Chopin achieves, in a single sound, this same
kind of complexity of bringing together many aspects of a piece.
He achieves this as a cadential act that remains one of the
highlights of the Nocturnes. Somehow, he manages to sum up a
whole piece in just one soft chord. When one hundred musicians
create the same effect in the close of the Brahms Adagio
movement, it is equally memorable although much more difficult
to realise.
What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?
Trust yourself.
Which musicians do you most admire?
Josquin, Palestrina, Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli, Frescobaldi,
Sweelinck, Louis Couperin, Purcell, Rameau, J.S.Bach, Haydn,
Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Wagner, Varèse, Bartók, Takemitsu
and Feldman. And for other reasons, Debussy, Messiaen, Barraqué,
Szymanowski, Elgar, Lutoslawski, Pärt and Xenakis. I would also
not exclude Knappertsbusch, Mengelberg, Flagstadt, Konwitschny,
von Karajan, Kondrashin, Heifetz, Oistrakh, Kirkpatrick, Kraus,
Lehrndorfer, Ogdon and Barenboim.
At heart I’m just a frustrated …?
Chef
What works of art would you most like to own?
Let's begin with Titian, Bosch, Rousseau; continue with Chagall,
Kandinsky. Matisse, Mondrian, Rothko. However, there are also
certain fabrics, screens and gardens that I love but perhaps
we should stop there.
How did you get into contemporary music in your early
career?
I was born in a far away place of great natural beauty where
children were encouraged not only to respect freedom, nature
and tradition, but also to believe that it was noble to dream
and to create the new. We were encouraged to be inventive, take
pride in our efforts, and to develop vision, irrespective of
how modest those achievements may have been. I fell head over
heels in love with the idea of composing, painting, of printing
my own fabrics while learning the fugues of Johann Sebastian
Bach, and sonatas and concertos of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven,
Chopin, Prokofiev, Bartók and Schoenberg.
An inspirational mentor was Sir Eugene Goossens who was a grand
champion of new music of the early/mid-twentieth century; his
direction of Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Bartók in Sydney, at
that time, was unforgettable. My piano teacher, Alexander Sverjensky
was a die-hard conservative in some ways, although there was
another side to him that few knew about. He introduced me not
only to the music of the golden age Russian composers, but also
to late Skryabin and to works of Gurdieyev and Alexander Bloch.
He held an extensive knowledge of the music of early twentieth
century Russian experimental composers who were contemporaries
of Skryabin including Prokofiev, Medtner, Stantchinsky, Roslavetz,
Krein, Mosolov, Lourié, Obukhov, Vyshnegradzky, Liapunov, Melkich,
Protopopov and others, who managed to emigrate or who were later
wiped out by Stalin.
As a teenager I was lucky enough to become acting organist in
a local church, directing Bach with a small mixed choir, in
the absence of the resident organist while studying church music.
In this period, I also studied conducting and composition and
played the piano music of Bartók, Busoni, Schoenberg, Webern,
Debussy, and Stravinsky. I came to know the works of Messiaen
and those of his celebrated students. Within a short space of
time, I also worked with Toru Takemitsu, Morton Feldman, Franco
Donatoni, Hans Otte and John Cage, and began collaborating with
them on a regular basis. New works were commissioned in a period
when I seemed to be working with composers virtually day and
night.
An enterprising young London entrepreneur and impresario, Robert
Slotover, who based his fledgling, ambitious, concert management
on the emerging avant-garde of the time, generously funded a
concert series entitled “The London Music Digest” and invited
me to be its artistic director. Separate concerts were programmed,
each involving a wide range of artists and instrumental ensembles
devoted to the works of single composers. Barraqué, Boulez (who
was then relatively new to London as the Music Director of the
BBC Symphony Orchestra), Stockhausen, Berio, Bussotti, Brouwer,
Xenakis and Takemitsu, formed the first series.
ROGER WOODWARD
Is it true that you won the International Frédéric Chopin Piano
Competition?
Absolutely not. It is sometimes regrettable what others publish
on the Internet and elsewhere that is beyond one's reach until
it is too late. Letters of protest seem to have made no difference
in this case.
The only piano competitions I ever entered were in Holland and
Australia, specifically to remain solvent and to fast-track
concerts when I was beginning my journey. Even then, however,
there seemed to be too many competitions in which many of the
winners seemed to cultivate the same kind of predictable repertoire
and cosmetic sound. At the time, I was sufficiently focused
on existing musical relationships with which I had been blessed
and was busy exploring generous performance opportunities that
were on offer.
Who were some of the significant musical influences from your
youth?
Musical influences were Kenneth Long (organist and choirmaster
at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney), Fernando Germani (visiting
Papal organist), Sir Eugene Goossens (resident conductor of
the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Director of the Sydney Conservatorium
of Music), and Alexander Sverjensky who was my piano teacher.
In Poland, I worked with Witold Lutoslawski; the conductor,
Witold Rowicki, with whom I toured extensively in the USA, and
the violinist Wanda Wilkomirska.
Lina Prokofieva, befriended me when I was a student in Warsaw
as well as Jorge Luis Herrero Dante. I learned as much, from
this Cuban colleague in Warsaw as anybody else in those times.
He was a brilliant pedagogue now living in Fort Lauderdale,
U.S.A. My professor in Warsaw was officially Zbigniew Drzewiecki
and his docent, Ryszard Bakst, who had been a Sofronitzky student.
I learned from my colleagues, just as I learned from my students
all my working life.
Through Drzewiecki, however, I came to know Fou T’song in London,
where I also befriended the writer Arthur Hedley. Amongst others,
I met Artur Rubinstein, Sviatoslav Richter, John Ogdon and Yehudi
Menuhin.
Richter invited me to play in his Festival at Tours at the Grange
de Meslay. I stayed for prolonged periods in Havana where I
performed concerts of Leo Brouwer and Carlos Fariñas before
moving to London, a city with which I fell in love and where
I lived before moving to San Francisco. Not long after I moved
to London, I began working with Zubin Mehta, Frank Zappa and
Olivier Messiaen (in Los Angeles), but it was through Messiaen
and his celebrated students, that my life took a completely
new direction.
What have you sacrificed for your art?
Close family relationships, personal friendships and an established
career, primarily as a result of standing up for human rights.
A savage retribution was exacted over decades.
What piece of music might work as the soundtrack to your
life?
J.S Bach’s Latin Mass in B minor
What are your ten desert-island discs?
Tricky. However, on the island I could not live without:
(1). John Eliot Gardiner directing the Monteverdi Vespers, L’Orfeo,
Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and the Bach Mass in B minor
(2). Nikolaus Harnoncourt directing The St Matthew Passion and
Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt directing Bach Cantatas.
(3). Thurston Dart, George Malcolm and Wanda Landowska performing
Bach’s keyboard suites and Goldberg Variations
(4). Erich Kleiber and Daniel Barenboim directing Beethoven
(5). Wilhelm Furtwängler directing Brahms and Wagner
(6). Sviatoslav Richter and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau performing
Schubert, Schumann and Wolff
(7). Claudio Abbado and Zubin Mehta directing Xenakis
(8). Georg Tintner directing Schubert and Bruckner
(9). Leonard Bernstein directing Stravinsky
(10). Charles Munch and Christoph Eschenbach directing Debussy
… and although there wasn’t room to include Nikolai Korniev’s
direction of the St. Petersburg Chamber Choir with their 1993
performance of the Rakhmaninov Vespers, I would had it been
allowed.
What advice would you give to a young musician?
Work hard, but don’t forget to laugh. Be grateful for the support
you receive. Have faith in yourself as well as in others. Be
patient. Remain true to yourself. Make good and true friends.
Try to avoid cliques. Quietly focus on your own projects while
resisting too many temporal influences. Trust your instincts.
Experiment. Help others. Listen to what others have to say.
And, as Beethoven recommended, always take the best of advice
in the rarest of cases.
What are your thoughts about the future?
Music is my life. It is an inspiration and joy to make music
with others as well as to work with emerging artists and help
them achieve their potential. Much of this was also dependent
on a kind of old-fashioned philanthropy from which I was fortunate
enough to benefit when I was an emerging artist.
As I look back to the collaboration with Robert Slotover and
to the success of my first artistic directorship of “The London
Music Digest”, I am filled with admiration and appreciation
for the investment that was made at that time, and for all that
happened.
This memorable collaboration paved the way for further artistic
directorships, including a chamber music and recital series
co-founded at Koetschach-Mauthen, Austria; Joie et Lumière
in the Bourgogne for Lady Helen Hamlyn and (the late) Lord Paul
Hamlyn, dedicated to the memory of Sviatoslav Richter; a conducting
residency with the Adelaide Chamber Orchestra and a twelve-year
stint with the Sydney Spring, which was an annual contemporary
music series that I founded at the same time as the Alpha Centauri
Ensemble - a thirty-six piece new-music ensemble that I toured
abroad. The ensemble’s recording of Xenakis’ Kraanerg
and the twenty-six performances of this masterwork at the Sydney
Opera House was a collaboration that is difficult to forget.
The generosity of visionaries such as Helen and Paul Hamlyn
and the miracle they created for young artists through the Hamlyn
Trust turned out to be very important for the future of the
profession. Isla Baring has also opened many doors for young
people through her valuable initiative with The Tait Memorial
Trust in London. There are other remarkable figures like Eckhart
Rahn who, forty years ago, founded Celestial Harmonies. He invested
in a unique series of recording projects developed over decades,
in a similarly idealistic way. The risk is always colossal for
individual investors, of course, and that kind of investment
sometimes takes decades to recoup. Nevertheless, we need to
continue to reach out to young people with tenderness, respect
and care. As for planning, it is not as difficult as we sometimes
imagine when one recalls Dostoyevsky who lifts our souls in
reminding us that “it is beauty that will save the world”.
© Angela Boyd
San Francisco, January 2010
Related Links
www.rogerwoodward.com
www.harmonies.com (for
record company Celestial Harmonies)
www.dischord.co.uk
(Celestial Harmonies UK distributor).
ROGER WOODWARD DISCOGRAPHY
ABC CLASSICS
*WERDER 3RD Sonata (1969) (1969)
format: LP
item number: unknown
*MEALE CORUSCATIONS live from Sydney Opera House (1973)
format: LP
item number: unknown
*CONCERT FOR DARWIN live at the Sydney Opera House (1970)
Format: LP
item number: SMX44977-44980
Contents: Chopin Polonaise Op.44 No.5 in F Sharp Minor
*TAKEMITSU PIANO WORKS (1991)
format:CD
Item number: ABC446 739-2
contents:
Rain Tree Sketch, Les Yeux Clos, For Away, Litany, Piano Distance,
Uninterrupted Rests and Corona & Crossing (live from Sydney
Spring 1990)
*ROGER WOODWARD PLAYS PROKOFIEV (1991)
format: CD
item number: ABC426 806-2
contents: Sarcasms op.17, Prelude op.12 No.7, Suggestion Diabolique
op.4 No.4, Visions Fugitives op.22, Four Etudes op.2, Visions
Fugitives op.22, Children’s Suite op.65, Pensées op.62, Visions
Fugitives op.22, Nocturne op.43 bis No.2, Gavotta op.32 No.3,
Paysage op.59 No.2, March from L’amour des trois oranges op.33a
*SKRYABIN late piano works (1991-2)
format: CD
item number: ABC446 741-2
contents: 2 Danses op.73, 5 Preludes op.74, Vers la flamme op.72,
Sonata No.10 op.70, 2 Poèmes op.71, 2 Poèmes op.69, 2 Preludes
op.67, 2 Poèmes op.63, Poème-nocturne op.61, Sonata No.6 op.62
and 3 Etudes op.65
*SKRYABIN Piano Concerto Works for Solo Piano (1999)
format: CD (2CDs)
item number: ABC465 671-2
contents: 3 Pieces op.2, 2 Nocturnes op.5, 5 Preludes op.16,
Piano Concerto in F-sharp minor op.20, 2 Poèmes op.32, Waltz
in A-flat major op.38, 8 Etudes op.42, 3 Morceaux op.52, 2 Pieces
op.57, Feuillet d’Album op.58, 2 Pièces op.59, 2 Danses op.73,
Vers la flamme op.72, Sonata No.10 op.70, 2 Poèmes op.71, 2
Poèmes op.69, 2 Preludes op.67, 2 Poèmes op.63, Poème-nocturne
op.61, Sonata No.6 op.62 and 3 Etudes op.65
*IMAGES OF DEBUSSY (1997)
format: CD
item number: ABC446 740-2
contents: L’Isle Joyeuse, Estampes, D’un cahier d’esquisses,
Images I, Hommage à Haydn, Images II, La plus que lente, Page
d’album and Children’s Corner
*DEBUSSY (1995)
format: CD
item number: ABC454 512-2
contents: Suite Bergamasque, Etudes Book I, Images (oubliées)
and Etudes Book II
*DEBUSSY PIANO WORKS (2002 re-release)
format: CD (2CDs)
item number: ABC472 170-2
contents: L’Isle Joyeuse, Estampes, D’un cahier d’esquisses,
Images I, Hommage à Haydn, Images II, La plus que lente, Page
d’album, Children’s Corner, Suite Bergamasque, Etudes Book I,
Images (oubliées) and Etudes Book II
*ANNE BOYD Meditations on a Chinese Character (1997)
format: CD
item number: ABC462 007-2
contents: Angklung
*SITSKY PIANO CONCERTO : The Twenty-Two Paths of the Tarot (1999)
format: CD
item number: ABC456 688-2
contents: Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1991, revised 1994)
The Twenty-Two Paths of the Tarot
ARTWORKS
*LITTLE MASTERPIECES (1996)
format: CD
item number: AW001
contents: The Heather (Debussy), Song without Words (Mendelssohn),
On wings of Song (Mendelssohn), Sonatina in G (Mozart), Waltz
(Brahms), Intermezzo (Brahms),The Girl with Flaxen Hair (Debussy),
The Swan (Saint-Saens), Rondo in C (Mozart), Minuet in C (Mozart),
Minuet in D (Mozart), Minuet in G (Mozart), Arietta (Mozart),
Arietta (Grieg), Woodland Peace (Grieg), Funeral March for a
Marionette (Gounod), Scottish Dance (Beethoven), Minuet in G
(Mozart), Minute in F (Mozart), German Dance (Schubert), Waltz
(Schubert), Sentimental Waltz (Schubert), Salut d’amour (Elgar),
Song without Words (Tchaikovsky), Sad Song (Tchaikovsky), Allegretto
(Schubert), Notturno (Grieg) and Little Piece (Liszt)
*MOVING PICTURES solo piano music from the movies (1995)
format: CD
item number: AW002
contents: The Man from Snowy River (Jessica’s Theme), Howard’s
End (Bridal Lullaby), Dr Zhivago (Lara’s Theme), Dr Zhivago
(Main Theme), Limelight ("The Terry” Theme), A Town Like
Alice (Main Theme), The Goldwin Follies (Love Walked In), Diva
(Sentimental Walk), Love Story (Main Theme), The Piano (Big
My Secret),The Godfather (Love Theme), Missing (Main Theme),
Romeo And Juliet (Love Theme), Picnic At Hanging Rock (Ascent
Music), The Man from Snowy River II (Main Theme), The Man from
Snowy River II (Now Do We Fight Them), The Man from Snowy River
II (Jessica’s Sonata II), The Man from Snowy River II (By The
Fire Side), Heavenly Creatures (Pauline and Juliet), The Chant
of Jimmy Blacksmith (Main Theme) and Exodus (Main Theme)
*LULLABY (1997)
format: CD
item number: AW004
contents: Lullaby (Brahms),Lullaby (Sibelius), Lullaby (Ilynsky),
Lullaby (Grieg), Waltz (Brahms), The Dream Castle (Hutchens),
Evening (Hutchens), Lullaby (Hill), Lullaby (Faure), Lullaby
(Cui), Daydreams (Borodin), Nocturne (Borodin), Daydreams (MacDowell),
Lullaby (Fuchs), Lullaby (Suk), Lullaby for sleeping children
(Suk), Finnish lullaby (Palmgren), Lullaby (Agnew), Morning
Prayer (Tchaikovsky), Lullaby (Tchaikovsky), Waltz (Tchaikovsky),
Melody (Schumann), Evening (Schumann), Little Lullaby (Schumann),
Lullaby (Hutchens), Forest Echoes (Hyde), Lonely Trees (Hyde),
The Quiet Meadow (Hyde)and Lullaby (Gehlhaar)
* CINEMA PARADISO (1996)
format: CD (TAPE)
item number: AW008 (AW4008 (TAPE))
contents: Phar Lap (Main Theme), Cinema Paradiso (Main theme),
Reilly, Ace of Spies (Main Theme), Casablanca (As Time Goes
By), Schindler’s list (Main Theme), East of Eden (Main Theme),
The Man from Snowy River (Jessica’s Sonata), The Man from Snowy
River (Rosemary Recalls), The Man from Snowy River (Tom fool’s
Knot), A King in New York (Mandolin serenade), A King in New
York (The Spring Song), A King in New York (Now That It’s Ended),
The great Dictator (Falling Star), The Untouchables (Al Capone),
The Untouchables (Ness And His Family), The Untouchables (Death
Theme), The Pink Panther Strikes Again (The Inspector Clouseau
Theme), The Thorn Birds (Main Theme), The Third Man (The Harry
Lime Theme), The Third Man (The Cafe Mozart Waltz), Dr Zhivago
(Tonya), The Winds of War (Love Theme), The Chronicles of Narnia
(Aslan’s Theme), The Godfather 2 (Main Theme), The Godfather
(The Godfather Waltz) and Pinocchio (When You Wish Upon A Star)
{Bonus Tracks only on TAPE: Schindler’s List (Stolen memories),
The Man from Snowy River 2 (Back to The Mountains)
CINEMA , Classics from the Silver Screen (1998)
solo piano music from the movies – Mozart, Schubert, Chopin,
Mendelssohn, Liszt, Debussy Suk.
*ROGER WOODWARD PLAYS CHOPIN
(1998, live performance Sydney Opera House 1997)
format: CD
Item number: AW012
contents: Nocturnes op.9 No.1 No.2 and No.3, Waltz op.64 No.2,
Waltz op.32 No.2, Mazurka op.17 No.4, Mazurka op.63 No.3, Mazurka
op.30 No. 4, Mazurka op.56 No.2 and No.3, Mazurka op.68 No.4,
Mazurka op.24 no.4, Etude op.25 No.1 No.2 No.6 and No.7, Polonaise
op.40 No.1
*THE ESSENTIAL ALBUM (1998)
format: CD (2CDs)
item number: AW015
contents: 18th Variation (Rachmaninov), Dr Zhivago (Lara’s Theme),
Dr Zhivago (Tonya’s Theme) Dr Zhivago (Main Theme), Diva (Sentimental
Walk), Romeo and Juliet (Love Theme), The Man from Snowy River
(Jessica’s Theme), The Man from Snowy River (Jessica’s Sonata),
Schindler’s List (Main Theme), Exodus (Main Theme), The Godfather
(Love Theme), The Godfather (The Godfather Waltz), The Godfather
2 (Main theme), Phar Lap (Main Theme), A Town Like Alice (Main
Theme), The Thorn Birds (main theme), Howard’s End (Bridal Lullaby),
The Piano (My Big secret), Love Story (Main Theme), East of
Eden (Main theme), Cinema Paradiso (Main theme); Reilly, Ace
of Spies (Main Theme), Casablanca (As Time Goes By), A King
in New York ( Mandolin Serenade), Pinocchio (When You Wish Upon
A Star), Shepherd’s Hey (Grainger), Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
(Bach), Evening (Prokofiev), The Quiet garden (Benjamin), The
Entertainer (Joplin), Fur Elise (Beethoven), “Raindrop” Prelude
(Chopin), From Foreign Lands And People (Schumann), Dreaming
(Schumann), “Minute” Waltz (Chopin), Waltz op.70 No.2 (Chopin),
Prelude op.28 No.7 No.20 (Chopin), “Moonlight” Sonata 1st movement
(Beethoven), Prelude in C major (Bach), The Swan (Saint-Saens),
On Wings of Song (Mendelssohn), Salut d’amour (Elgar), Sonata
in A major 1st movement (Mozart), Lullaby (Bercuse) (Chopin),
Prelude op.28 No.4 No.6 (Chopin), The Girl With Flaxen Hair
(Debussy), Sounds and Perfumes Swirl In The Evening Air (Debussy),
General Lavine-Eccentric (Debussy), The Terrace For Moonlight
Audiences (Debussy), Evening in Transylvania (Bartók), Arietta
(Grieg) and Lullaby (Schubert)
*RONDO ALLA TURCA
format: CD
item number: AW021
contents: Impromptu No.1 (Chopin), Waltz op.69 No.1 (Chopin),
Fantasie Impromptu (Chopin), Waltz op.69 No.2 (Chopin), Nocturn
op.15 No.1 (Chopin), Rondo Alla Turca (Mozart), Liebestraum
No.3 (Liszt), Consolation No.1 (Liszt), Reverie (Debussy), Song
Without Words (Mendelssohn), Idyll (Suk) and Impromptu No.3
No.4 (Schubert)
BMG
*CLAIR DE LUNE (1989)
format: CD
item number: SPCD1198
contents: Clair de Lune (Debussy), The Girl with the Flaxen
Hair (Debussy), Golliwog’s Cakewalk (Debussy); Romance op.28
no 2 (Schumann); The Prophet Bird, op.82 no.7 (Schumann); Arabesque
op 18 (Schumann); Devotion (Schumann-Liszt); Berceuse op.4 No.5
(Sibelius), Romance op.24 No.9 (Sibelius), To the Spring (Grieg),
Blithe Bells (Bach-Grainger), The Lover and the Nightingale
(Granados), Mazurka in B flat op.7 No.1 (Chopin), Mazurka in
A minor op.7 No.2 (Chopin), Nocturne in E flat op.9 No.2 (Chopin),
Waltz in A flat op.69 No.1 (Chopin), The Old Minuet (Paderewski),
Troika Ride (November) op.37a (Tchaikowsky), Prelude in C sharp
minor op.3 No.2 (Rachmaninov).
CELESTIAL HARMONIES
FRYDERYK CHOPIN, The Complete Nocturnes (2006)
Format CD, Item Number 14260-2 (double CD) Disc 1 58’17”; Disc
2 65’55”
Producer/Engineer, Ulrich Kraus, Munich
http://www.harmonies.com
HANS OTTE, Released July 2007
13259-2 Stundenbuch/ Book of Hours - Composed by Hans Otte
http://www.blacksun.com/releases/13259.htm
PETER MICHAEL HAMEL, Released July 2007
13256-2 Vom Klang Des Lebens / Of the Sounds of Life - Composed
by Peter Michael Hamel
http://www.blacksun.com/releases/13256.htm
BACH, Released September 2007
13280-2 Johann Sebastian BACH: Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue
BWV 903, Partita No. 2 BWV 826, Partita No. 6 BWV 830
http://www.blacksun.com/releases/13280.htm
COL LEGNO
*20 ANS DE MUSIQUE CONTEMPORAINE A METZ
format: CD (5CDs)
item number: AU31 8 30CD
contents: FELDMAN Piano Concerto (live with Hans Zender and
Saarbrucken Rundfunksorchester)
*20 ANS DE MUSIQUE CONTEMPORAINE A METZ
format: CD
item number: AU31 8 31CD (Separate form as AU31 8 30CD)
contents: FELDMAN Piano Concerto (live with Hans Zender and
Saarbrucken Rundfunksorchester)
*FELDMAN ORCHESTRAL WORKS AND CHAMBER MUSIC
item number: WWE 1CD 20506 (re-release as AU31 8 30CD)
contents: FELDMAN Piano Concerto (live with Hans Zender and
Saarbrucken Rundfunksorchester)
CPO
*MORTON FELDMAN (Hans Zender Edition) (1978)
format: CD
item number: CPO 999 483-2 (same contents as Col Legno)
contents: FELDMAN Piano Concerto - World Premiere (live with
Hans Zender and Saarbrucken Rundfunksorchester)
DECCA
* TAKEMITSU PIANO WORKS (1974)
format: LP
item number: HEAD4
contents: Corona (London version), Far Away, Piano Distance,
Uninterrupted Rests
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON
*WIEN MODERN III (1995)
format: CD
item number: 447 115-2
contents: Xenakis Keqrops (Wien Modern with Claudio Abbado recorded
live at Wiener Konzerthaus 1995)
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON (AUSTRALIA)
*THE COLOUR OF AUSTRALIAN CLASSICS
format: CD (2CDS)
item number: 441 969-2
contents: Xenakis Keqrops (Wien Modern with Claudio Abbado recorded
live at Wiener Konzerthaus 1995)
EMI
*CHOPIN PIANO WORKS (1970)
format: LP
item number: OASD7560
contents: Etudes op.10 (complete), Nocturne op.27 No.2, Polonaise
Fantasie op.61
*RACHMANINOV PRELUDES (1970) (re-release on CD 1974)
format: LP
item number: OASD7561
contents: Prelude G Sharp minor op.32 No.12, Prelude C Sharp
minor op.3 No.1, Prelude B Flat minor op.32 No.2, Prelude B
minor op.32 No.10, Prelude F minor op.32 No.6, Prelude D major
op.23 No.4, Prelude A major op.32 No.9, Prelude F Sharp minor
op.23 No.1, Prelude G minor op.23 No.5, Prelude C minor op.23
No.7
*SKRYABIN PROKOFIEV SHOSTAKOVICH (1970)
format: LP
item number: OASD7562
contents: Etude in C Sharp minor, Op.2 No.1 (Scriabin), Etude
in B Flat minor, Op.8 No.11 (Scriabin), Piano Sonata No.10 (Scriabin),
Prelude and Fugue in D Flat No.15 (Shostakovich), Piano Sonata
No.7 (Prokofiev)
*ROGER WOODWARD PLAYS CHOPIN (1972)
format: LP
item number: HQS1303
contents: Polonaise in F Sharp minor op.44, Allegro de Concert
op.46, , Barcarolle op.60, Mazurkas op.68 No.1-3, Mazurkas op.posth.
*AUSTRALIAN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC Meale/Sculthorpe/Edwards (1970)
format: LP
item number: OASD7567
contents: Coruscations (Meale), Sonatina (Sculthorpe), Monos
II (Edwards), Snow, Moon and Flowers (Sculthorpe), Night (Sculthorpe),
Landscape (Sculthorpe)
*THE LONDON MUSIC DIGEST FROM THE ROUND HOUSE (1972)
format: LP (2LPs)
item number: EMSP551
contents: Sonate (Barraqué), Pour Clavier (apres ‘Pieces de
Chair II’) (Bussotti), Per Tre sul Piano (Bussotti), Sonata
Pian’e Forte, For Tape, Piano and Percussion (Brouwer)
*CONYNGHAM (1982)
format: LP
Item number: OASD 27 0403
contents: Southern Cross, Double Concerto for Violin and Piano
(with Wanda Wilkomirska and Sydney Symphony Orchestra live from
Sydney Opera House)
ETCETERA
*XENAKIS (1998) (re-release 1999)
format: CD
item number: KTC1075
contents:
Kraanerg (Roger Woodward conducting Alpha Centauri Ensemble
live from Sydney Opera House)
*TAKEMITSU PIANO WORKS (1990)
format:CD
item number: KTC1103
contents: Rain Tree Sketch, Les Yeux Clos, Far Away, Litany,
Piano Distance, Uninterrupted Rests and Corona & Crossing
(live from Sydney Spring 1990)
*FELDMAN (1990)
format:CD
item number: KTC2015
contents: Triadic Memories, Piano, Two Pianos, Piano Four Hands
and Piano Three Hands (with Ralph Lane)
*GEHLHAAR DIAGONAL FLYING (with Rolf Gehlhaar - Sound Space)
(1990-91)
format: CD
item number: KTC1127
contents: Diagonal Flying (with Rolf Gehlhaar - Sound Space)
(Recorded live at Sydney Spring International Festival of New
Music)
*SKRYABIN LATE PIANO WORKS (1991)
format: CD
Item number: KTC1126
contents: 2 Danses op.73, 5 Preludes op.74, Vers la flamme op.72,
Sonata No.10 op.70, 2 Poèmes op.71, 2 Poèmes op.69, 2 Preludes
op.67, 2 Poèmes op.63, Poème-nocturne op.61, Sonata No.6 op.62
and 3 Etudes op.65
FOGHORN CLASSICS
fragments, vol.1
Shostakovich String Quartets
Shostakovich Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op57
3 CD set, total playing time 74’58”; 74’1”; 73’42”
Producer and Engineer Judith Sherman,
Recorded at the American Academy of Arts & Letters, 2005
J&B
*SOLO (1988)
favourites by Bach/Beethoven/Chopin/Grieg /Liszt/Mozart/Tchaikovsky/etc
format: CD and LP
item number: unknown (CD), JB260 (LP)
contents:
Gymnopédie No.1 (from 3 Gymnopédies) (Satie), Tango Op.165 No.2
from España (Albeniz), Bagatelle A minor (1809) (“Fur Elise”)
(Beethoven), Minuet in G Major (Beethoven), Nocturne D Flat
Major Op.27 No.2 (Chopin), Etude E major Op.10 No.7 (Deep is
the Night), Etude C Minor op.10 No.12 (Revolutionary), Fantasie-Impromptu
C Sharp Minor Op.66 (Chopin), Gigue for the Fifth French Suite
in G Major (J. S. Bach), 1st Movement (Allegro) from C major
Sonata K.545 (W. A. Mozart), Rondo Alla Turca from A major Sonata
K.331 (W. A. Mozart), March from the Opera “The Love for Three
Oranges” (Prokofiev), Russian Dance from Children’s Album op.39
(Tchaikovsky), Waltz in D Flat Op.61 No.1 (The Minute) (Chopin),
Prelude A Major Op.28 No.7 (Les Sylphides), Liebestraum No.3
in A Flat Major (Liszt), Malaguena (from the Spanish Suite)
(Lecuona), Wedding Day at Troldhaugen (Grieg)
*MUSIC OF THE NIGHT (1990)
popular themes from films and musicals
format: CD and LP
item number: unknown (CD), JB425 (LP)
contents: Music Of The Night (Prelude) (Phantom of the Opera),
All I Ask (Phantom of the Opera), Memory (Cats), Endless Love
(Jesus Christ Superstar), I Don’t Know How To Love Him (Jesus
Christ Superstar), Jessica’s Theme (The Man From Snowy River),
The Timeless land (The Snowman), Walking In The Air (The Snowman),
Don’t Cry For Me Argentina (Evita), As Time Goes By (Casablanca),
Chariots Of Fire (An Officer & A Gentleman), Up Where We
Belong (An Officer & A Gentleman), All Creatures Great And
Small (Sesame Street), Rainbow Connection (Sesame Street), Six
Ribbons (Beaches), Wind Beneath My wings (Beaches), Bring Him
Home (Les Miserables), On Golden Pond (Phantom of the Opera),
Imagine (Phantom of the Opera), Music Of The Night (Phantom
of the Opera)
LONDON (JAPAN)
* TAKEMITSU PIANO WORKS
format: CD
item number: POCL-2347 (Re-release CD: POCL-3998 and UCCD-3131)
contents: Corona (London version), Far Away, Piano Distance,
Uninterrupted Rests
POLSKIE NAGRANIA
*SEROCKI Fantasmagoria (1976) (One of the series of the LP 20th
International Festival of Contemporary Music Warsaw Autumn)
format: LP
item number: SX1444
contents: SEROCKI Fantasmagoria (1976)
RCA
*BEETHOVEN SONATAS op.57, op.111 (1973)
format: LP
item number: LRL1 5016
contents: BEETHOVEN Sonatas op.57, op.111
*BEETHOVEN SONATAS op.2 no.3; op.49 no.2; op.27 no.2 (1976)
format: LP
item number: LRL1 5097
contents: BEETHOVEN Sonatas op.2 no.3; op.49 no.2; op.27 no.2
*AUSTRALIA CONTEMPORARY MUSIC (1974)
Meale/Boyd/Sculthorpe/Bauld/Conyngham
format: LP
item number: VRL1-0083
contents: Orenda (Meale), Coruscations (Meale), Angklung (Boyd),
Koto Music (Sculthorpe), Snowflake (Conyngham), Concert (Bauld)
*SHOSTAKOVICH Preludes & Fugues (1976)
format: LP (2LPs)
item number: LRL2 5100
contents: 24 Preludes and Fugues (complete)
*BEETHOVEN/LISZT EROICA SYMPHONY (1973)
format: LP
item number: RL25090
contents: BEETHOVEN/LISZT Eroica Symphony
*HODDINOTT 3RD CONCERTO (1976)
(with Hans-Hubert Schönzeler & Philharmonia Orchestra)
format: LP
item number: RL25082
contents: HODDINOTT 3rd Concerto
*BRAHMS 1ST CONCERTO (with Kurt Masur & Philharmonia Orchestra)
(1976)
format: LP
item number: RL25031
contents: BRAHMS 1st Concerto
*SHOSTAKOVICH PIANO TRIO AND PIANO QUINTET (1978)
(with Edinburgh String Quartet)
format: LP
item number: RL25224
contents: Piano Quintet in G Minor op.57, Piano Trio No.2 in
E Minor op.67
SIPARIO DISCHI
*NUOVE SINCRONIE 92
format: CD
item number: sin1012
contents: Donatoni Sincronie (with J. Scalfi (vc))
UNICORN
*BARRAQUÉ SONATE (re-release) (1978)
format: LP
item number: UNS263
contents: Sonate (Barraqué)
WARNER
*RUSTLE OF SPRING (1992)
format: CD
Item number: 90311774722
contents: I Got Rhythm (Gershwin), Fascinatin’ Rhythm (Gershwin),
Oh, Lady be Good (Gershwin), Do it again (Gershwin), The man
I love (Gershwin), Danny Boy (Grainger), Country Gardens (Grainger),
Handel in the Strand (Grainger), Maple Leaf Rag (Joplin), Rustle
of Spring (Sinding), Cradle Song (Grieg),
Once upon a time (Grieg), Little Troll (Grieg), Moment Musical
(Schubert), Ständchen (R. Strauss), Spring song (Mendelssohn),
Novelette (Schumann),
Scottish dances (Chopin), Intermezzo (Brahms), Waltz (Brahms),
Polichinelle (Rachmaninov), Eighteenth Variation from Rhapsody
on a theme of Paganini (Rachmaninov), Tango (Albeniz), Evening
in Granada (Debussy), Arabesque (Debussy), Minstrels (Debussy),
I want you - waltz (Satie), John Hector McFarlane and his mother
(Gowers) and Forgotten Waltz (Liszt)
*THE MUSIC OF FREDERIC CHOPIN (1992) (re-released 1997)
format: CD
item number: 4509903182
contents: Valse brillante in A flat op.34 No.1, Waltz in F minor
op.70 No.2, Waltz in A flat op.42, Berceuse in D flat op.57,
Etude in A flat op.25 No.1, Etude in E op.10 No.3, Prelude in
A op.28 No.7, Prelude in D flat op.28 No.15 “Raindrop”, Prelude
in C minor op.28 No.20, Mazurka in A minor op.59 No.1, Mazurka
in A flat op.59 No.2, Mazurka in F sharp minor op.59 No.3, Polonaise
in A flat op.53, Prelude in E minor op.28 No.4, Prelude in B
minor op.28 No.6, Waltz in D flat op.64 No.1 “Minute”, Waltz
in C sharp minor op.64 No.2, Nocturne in F sharp op.15 No.2,
Waltz in E minor (No.14) op.Posth, Waltz inG flat op.70 No.1
and Ballade in F minor op.52
*OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY (1994)
format: CD
item number: 4509971602
contents: Pleasant Landscape (Smetana), Scotch Strathspey and
Reel (Grainger), Children’s March "Over the hills and far
away" (Grainger), May-Night (Palmgren), Rumanian Folkdances
(Bartok), Morning Mood (Peer Gynt) (Grieg), Norwegian Dance
op.35 No.2 (Grieg), Gavotte (Holberg Suite) (Grieg), Homeland
(Grieg), Solveig’s Song (Greig), Nocturne no.5 (Field), The
Music Box (Liadov), Russian Dance op.40 No.10 (Tchaikovsky),
Malaguena (Albeniz), The Banana Tree (Gottschalk), The Heart
Asks Pleasure First (from the film ‘The Piano’) (Nyman), Gnossienne
No.1 (Satie), Nene (Nazareth), Kismet Rag (Joplin), Three Rose
Bay Quadrilles (Stanley), Three German Dances D.975 & D.974
(Schubert), Roses in the Midday Sun (Koechlin), Fur alina (Pärt)
and Waltz D.844 (Schubert)
*MY FAVOURITE CLASSICS (1995)
format: CD
item number: 0630113862
contents: Fur Elise (Beethoven), Consolation No.3 (Liszt), From
Foreign Lands and people (Schumann), Dreaming (Schumann), To
A Wild Rose (MacDowell), Elves Dance (Grieg), “Moonlight” Sonata
(1st. mvt.) (Beethoven), 18th Variation (Rachmaninov), Danny
Boy (Grainger), The Man I Love (Gershwin), Moment Musical No.3
(Schubert), “Raindrop” Prelude (Chopin), “Minute” Waltz (Chopin),
Venetian Gondola Song (Mendelssohn), Clair de Lune (Debussy),
Schindler’s List-theme (Williams), Anna Magdalena Notebook (excerpts)
(Bach), Gavotte (Bach), The Little Negro (Debussy), Reverie
(Tchaikovsky), Gymnopédie No.1 (Satie), Scottish Dances (Chopin),
Spring Song (Mendelssohn), Handel in the Strand (Grainger),
Country Gardens (Grainger) and Cradle Song (Grieg)
KURTUR (VTR)
*The Tchaikovsky 150th Anniversary Concert From China
(with Tan Lihua & Symphony Orchestra of the Central Philharmonic,
Beijing)
Format: DVD
Item number: D4000
Contents: Piano Concerto No.1 in B Flat Minor op.23 (Tchaikovsky)
