Women of Note
A Century of Australian Composers
-
Volume 3
Recording details not provided
Reviewed as a digital download.
Download only from UK dealers; booklet not included.
ABC 485 5858
[139:00]
A few years ago, prompted by a comment from one of my daughters, I set out
to explore the music of women composers. I initially planned to listen to
nothing but the music of female composers for a week, but a week quickly
became two which then became a month, which in time became several months.
I can’t say I ended the process any more fond of the output of Clara
Schumann or Fanny Mendelssohn than I was at the start, but what I had
discovered was the world of contemporary women composers. It seems to me
the future of classical music is likely to be feminine and is in good
hands.
The recording under consideration here is the third in an enterprising
series from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation devoted to the women
composers of Australia. At the outset, it is worth pointing out that if
there is a great divide in contemporary classical between the more
dissonant and the more consonant, my usual preference is for the dissonant.
I was, therefore, surprised at how much I enjoyed this compilation, given
that it is very decidedly on the consonant side of the fence. Probably as a
result of this preference, I had only previously encountered one of the
composers featured, Liza Lim. Very little on this collection would have
troubled a moderately open-minded audience about the time of the First
World War. What you won’t get is anything influenced by the Second Viennese
School of Webern, Berg and Schoenberg, let alone anything more modern.
What you do get is a burst of Australian sunshine, which was particularly
welcome in a rather wet Covid hit English summer. The opening piano trio by
Anna Cawrse is diatonic and unashamedly melodic and it sets the tone for
the rest rather well. The performances and the recording are top drawer and
go a long way to selling the music. I haven’t been able to track down all
the performance dates of the various recordings here, because the notes
supplied with this download-only release are extremely sparse, but some of
the music here is culled from previous releases.
There is a tendency for the music to drift toward film or tv music. This is
most noticeable in The Witching Hour, a concerto for the extraordinary
combination of eight double basses, by Elena Kats-Chernin. This could
easily be from the soundtrack of a Harry Potter spin-off. It is highly
inventive music but, like a real soundtrack, I found it lacked a certain
something to hold my attention for its entirety. I hope I don’t sound too
damning if I say that a lot of the music included in this set is highly
pleasant listening without really lingering in the memory.
But enough carping from me! There is lots to enjoy on this recording. There
is, for instance, an affecting trio by Natalie Williams entitled Songs of
Silent Earth. Again, it is nothing revolutionary but it is all beautifully
done. From an earlier generation, Peggy Glanville-Hicks’ lively Sinfonia da
Pacifica had me thinking of her compatriot Percy Grainger even though the
first two movements bear the fingerprints of her teacher Vaughan Williams
without ever sacrificing her own voice.
At the heart of the collection are a few more bracing pieces: Felicity
Wilcox’s piece People of this Place satisfyingly explores the overlap
between the modern clarinet and sounds I associate with the didgeridoo and
banishes any thoughts of a disgraced Australian entertainer in the process;
Liza Lim’s Weaver-of-fictions explores similar terrain but in a gentler way
on the recorder; and finally, deploying a Japanese flute called a
shakuhachi with a conventional string quartet, Holly Harrison’s Flashpoint
finds new ways of evoking the Australian experience.
Probably my favourite piece was Katia Beaugeais’ luminous Like Snowdrops
You Will Shine. This is another good demonstration that a composer doesn’t
have to be terribly original but does need to have something to
say. I can easily imagine this becoming something of a contemporary
classical hit if it got the airplay. The same could be said of Caerwen
Martin’s expansive, dream-like Stars Come Out in a Midnight Sky.
I have barely scratched the surface of the delights on offer – I haven’t
even mentioned the sunlit minimalism of Hilary Kleinig’s Cockatoos, for
example – but I’m not sure an endless list will be desperately helpful.
A considerable amount of care and affection seems to have gone into the
selection and sequencing of the various items that make up this release
and, taking the album as a whole, it is a very enjoyable listen rather than
seeming bitty. The technical standard of the recordings is uniformly first
class, not an easy thing with this kind of compilation which mixes
orchestral with chamber music and music originating from a variety of
original releases. The performances reflect well on what is clearly a
vibrant classical scene in Australia at the moment. My only gripe concerns
the paucity of information on the composers and their music included. I had
to do my own research online to find out the most basic details, failing in
most cases to find even birth dates, which is a pity as this collection is
a great calling card for the composers involved.
I haven’t yet got to the previous two volumes of this series but the
pleasure given by this one makes that a certainty. There is lots of fine
music to discover here, even for those normally allergic to new music, so
if another Covid summer is getting you down why not treat yourself to a
blast of Australian sunshine?
David McDade
Contents
Anne CAWRSE (b.1981)
Songs Without Words [15:10]
Benaud Trio
Fiona LOADER (b.1964)
Lorikeet Corroboree [5:37]
Ensemble Offspring
Elena KATS-CHERNIN
The Witching Hour: Concerto for Eight Double Basses
Kaes Boersma, Timothy Dunin, Alex Henery, Max McBride, Kirsty McCahon,
Matthew McDonald, Robert Nairn, Caro Vigilante (double basses) Australian
World Orchestra/Alexander Briger
Caerwen MARTIN
Stars Come Out in a Midnight Sky [5:22]
ACO Collective
Hilary KLEINIG
Cockatoos [5:13]
Muses Trio
Jane STANLEY
Desert Rose [2:44]
Ensemble Offspring
Emma JAYAKUMAR
Bell Birds: III Lento sognando [5:56]
Darlington Quartet
Jessica WELLS
The Night Parrot (excerpts) [6:53]
Morgan England-Jones (soprano) Acacia Quartet
Leonie COHEN
Lights Finale [4:46]
Muses Trio
Nardi SIMPSON
Of Stars and Birds [4:08]
Ensemble Offspring
Natalie WILLIAMS
Songs of Silent Earth [12:54]
Muses Trio
Felicity WILCOX
People of This Place [7:56]
Ensemble Offspring
Liza LIM
Weaver-of-fictions [4:24]
Genevieve Lacey (recorder)
Holly HARRISON
Flashpoint [8:05]
Riley Lee (shakuhachi) Enigma Quartet
Elizabeth SHEPPARD
Kalgoorli Silky Pear [6:17]
Scott Davis (1770 square piano)
Katia BEAUGEAIS (b.1976)
Like Snowdrops You Will Shine [5:46]
ACO Collective
Peggy GLANVILLE-HICKS (1912-1990)
Sinfonia da Pacifica [12:47]
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra/Richard Mills
