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Broadway Boogie

Broadway Boogie is a collection of new music for piano featuring works by Nigel Westlake, Andrew Ford, Andrew Byrne, Mark Pollard and Michael Kieran Harvey. It won the best classical CD of 2008 in Melbourne's Herald-Sun.

Reviewer Bob Crimeen has awarded Broadway Boogie the honor of being number 1 in his best classical CDs of 2008 list in Melbourne's Herald-Sun. He says, "Australia's own piano maestro makes modern classical music arrestingly acceptable".

"Broadway Boogie is an assemblage of recent Australian piano music selected for its allusions - sometimes extremely tenuous - to New York. A major international centre of ideas and creativity, this city maintains a galvanizing effect on Australian intellectual life in a way that, say, Washington never could. Andrew Ford's Broadway Boogie-Woogie finds musical parallels to Mondrian's famous painting, the epitome of non-symmetrical balance, and itself a paean to New York's artistic diversity. Andrew Byrne, a resident of New York, has written an unsentimental exploration of the surreal sounds of chaos and succour after the destruction of the Twin Towers. Byrne's mentor, John McCaughey, possibly the most self-effacing and reluctant Australian composer, yet one of Australia's busiest and most original musicians, gives us a glimpse into the multi-layered nature of his thinking with Toccata de Nielico. Nigel Westlake's brilliant (if brief!) follow-up to the magnificent first sonata contrasts ethereal improvisations with driving rhythms which would not sound out of place in downtown Manhattan. Mark Pollard's homage to Euclid shows his fascination with post-minimalism (a New York hallmark) and the re-emergence of emotion, and finds fresh stimulus in the nostalgic language of Chopin. My own sonata is offered in gratitude to Saxby Pridmore, who in turn owes his inspiration to the great New York Stoic psychologist Albert Ellis." - Michael Kieran Harvey

All works on this CD are premieres: Andrew Ford: 11/11/05 at Feast Festival, Adelaide (Australian premiere) - Andrew Byrne: 25/7/04 at Federation Concert Hall, Hobart (world premiere) - John McCaughey: world premiere on this recording - Nigel Westlake: 1/8/05 at Festival Hall, Adelaide (world premiere) - Mark Pollard: 16/6/06 at Federation Hall, VCA (world premiere) - Michael Kieran Harvey: 8/10/06 at Port Fairy Festival, Victoria (world premiere).

A discussion on the subject of composing with Andrew Byrne and Michael Kieran Harvey is available on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/Ekm6aFIdlbI

Artist

Michael Kieran Harvey

Australian pianist and composer, Dr Michael Kieran Harvey FAHA, is one of the foremost interpreters of contemporary piano music of his generation. A champion of Australian music and himself a composer, he regularly commissions new Australian music and has performed with Australia's leading contemporary music ensembles and orchestras.


Press quote

“Who better to interpret and play this splendidly engineered and lengthy recital of contemporary music than one of Australia's finest pianists, Michael Kieran Harvey? . . . For those with flexible and enquiring minds it provides an insight into the creative thinking of some of Australia's most foremost composers”

— John Barns, 3MBS FM Libretto

Audio previews

Track Listing

  1. Broadway Boogie-Woogie Andrew Ford 2:25
  2. Six Dances Andrew Byrne

  3. first dance 2:41
  4. second dance 4:05
  5. third dance 2:53
  6. fourth dance 2:09
  7. fifth dance 4:03
  8. sixth dance 3:16
  9. Toccata da Nielico John McCaughey 2:41
  10. Piano Sonata II Nigel Westlake

  11. first section 3:30
  12. second section 6:07
  13. Piano Sonata No.1 Mark Pollard

  14. first movement 3:14
  15. second movement 11:53
  16. third movement 8:06
  17. Piano Sonata, 2006 Michael Kieran Harvey

  18. Maestoso 10:24
  19. mm60 3:26
  20. Presto 4:15
  21. Epilogue 2:32

Performers

Composers

Andrew Ford

Andrew Ford is a composer, writer and broadcaster, and has won awards in all three capacities, including the 2004 Paul Lowin Prize for his song cycle Learning to Howl and in 2010 a Green Room Award for his opera Rembrandt's Wife.

Mark Pollard

Australian composer Mark Clement Pollard has an eclectic compositional style utilising such diverse materials as, improvisation, jazz, pop and the indigenous music’s of South East Asia.

Nigel Westlake

Westlake has played in fusion bands, soundtrack recording sessions, Australia's leading instrumental groups and as a soloist with orchestras and classical ensembles in Australia and in many cities of the world including London, Paris, Berlin, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Vancouver, Washington, Moscow, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Beijing, New Delhi, Wellington and New York.

John McCaughey

John McCaughey is perhaps better known as a conductor of the Astra Chamber Music Society than as a composer.

Andrew Byrne

Andrew Byrne is a Australian composer based in New York, who has written works for film, dance, theater, and the concert hall. His music, which always betrays a fascination with polyrhythm, is influenced by American experimental music and non-Western music.


Where to buy

Broadway Boogie is available for download from the iTunes Music Store.
It's available for streaming through Apple Music.

Broadway Boogie is available as as CD. It can be purchased online through Buywell Music or the Australian Music Centre which both offer secure online ordering.

Move CDs can be ordered through music retailers across Australia including Readings.

Product details

Recorded at the Move Records Studio, Melbourne Australia.

(all except tracks 14, 15, 16 and 17)

This recording project has been assisted by the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

List price
$25.00 AUD
Total playing time
77 minutes 40 seconds
Editing
Vaughan McAlley
Mastering
Martin Wright
Venue
Move Records Studio (all except tracks 14, 15, 16 and 17)
Tasmanian Conservatorium (tracks 14—17)
Thanks to
Australia Council
Release date
2007
Copyright
© 2007 Move Records
Phonogram
℗ 2007 Move Records
Categories
Australian, Classical, Keyboard
Catalogue number
MD 3315
Alternate catalogue number
MD3315
Barcode
EAN 9314574331523