Listen & tracks
2 of 14 tracks have a preview · 9 works
-
1 Vasco Pyjama Karlin Greenstreet Love
-
2 Burnished Silver Elena Kats-Chernin
-
3 Second Door on the Left Elena Kats-Chernin
-
4 Kwong Song Elena Kats-Chernin
-
5 Pink Breasted Robin Elena Kats-Chernin
-
6 Starling Ian Blake
-
7 What Goes Around Comes Around Sandra France Six Vignettes for Clarinet Quartet
-
8 Brindabella Blues Ruth Lee Martin
-
String Quartet No. 10Peter Sculthorpe 3 movements
- 9 Sun Song 1 (trans. Zach Clarke)
- 10 Interlude (trans. Zach Clarke)
- 11 Sun Song III (trans. Zach Clarke)
Music about cartoons and karma, a blues for the drought, and Armenian melodies mixed with funk: recorded with support from the Australia Council, the CD presents works by Elena Kats-Chernin, Peter Sculthorpe, Karlin Love and Canberra composers Sandra France, Ian Blake and Ruth Lee Martin. Together they show a cross-section of compositional invention and the many sonic capabilities of the clarinet family.
Second Door on the Left sits at the heart of what has earned Clarity its reputation for versatility and technical brilliance. The group’s commitment to new Australian music led to three commissioned works for clarinet quartet, supported by artsACT. Ian Blake’s Starling, Sandra France’s What Goes Around Comes Around and Ruth Lee Martin’s Brindabella Blues form the core of the programme.
Around them sit arrangements made for the quartet: four pieces by Elena Kats-Chernin, including the title track; a transcription of Peter Sculthorpe’s String Quartet No. 10; and Karlin Love’s imaginative Vasco Pyjama, drawn from the Michael Leunig cartoon character. The result ranges from lush melody and quasi-electronic colour to wild, quirky utterance.
Clarity launched the recording at the National Library of Australia, home of Music Australia, which preserves and promotes Australian composers performed by Australian musicians. The project was supported by the ACT Government through artsACT and the Australia Council for the Arts.
The album crowns a long-term commitment to new Australian music, not only through commissioning but through Clarity’s New Ears Initiative, which aims to make new work accessible to a wider public. From an all-night rock concert in outback Australia to London’s St Martin-in-the-Fields, the ensemble’s varied stages have given these Australian works broad exposure.
Artists
Clarity Clarinet Quartet
ensemble
Take a journey of sonority and style with Australia's unique chamber ensemble, Clarity. Celebrating 10 years of Clarity in 2006, this quartet has established itself as an entertaining, versatile and technically brilliant group.
Elena Kats-Chernin
composer
Elena Kats-Chernin AO (born 1957) is an Australian composer whose piano rags, chamber miniatures, ballet and stage scores have become central to contemporary Australian repertoire.
Peter Sculthorpe
composer
Peter Sculthorpe (1929–2014) was a Tasmanian-born composer whose orchestral and chamber music drew the Australian landscape, neighbouring Asian traditions and Indigenous materials into a clear, personal language. He wrote extensively for strings, piano and voice.
Ian Blake
composer
Zach Clarke
composer
Sandra France
composer
Sandra France writes chamber, orchestral and wind music that is personal and lyrical, with play never far from the surface. Folk tunes, nursery rhymes and historical models are reshaped through colourful scoring, clear development and a distinctive voice.
Karlin Greenstreet Love
composer
Ruth Lee Martin
composer
Performers
- Clarity Clarinet Quartet · ensemble
- Nicole Canham · clarinet
- Lisa Manning · clarinet
- Samantha Kelson · clarinet
- Diana Springford · clarinet
Technical credits
-
Thanks to
artsACT
Creative Australia
Details
- List price
- $25.00 AUD
- Categories
- Australian, Classical
- Catalogue
- MCD 340
- EAN
- 9314574034028
More to explore
This is clarity
Take a journey of sonority and style with Australia's unique chamber ensemble, Clarity. Leave any pre-conceived notion of the clarinet at the door – they explore every genre from contemporary art music to Led Zeppelin, infusing their performances with energy and life.
Night Thoughts
During the long still nights of Melbourne’s Covid lockdowns, pianist Len Vorster listened widely and thought hard about what he heard. Those evening ruminations became this programme of fifteen nocturnes and night pieces, from Schumann’s circle to Copland.
Fable
This solo harp collection spans sixty-six years of original Australian composition. Jacinta Dennett performs works by Australian women composers, showing the instrument’s distinctive colour, range and expressive force.
Rhythms of Green and Gold
John Martin’s solo piano recital gathers nineteen short works by ten Australian composers, from ragtime and blues to waltz and jazz-tinged lyricism.
Rhythms of Change
In 2020 Claire Edwardes, often called the wonder woman of percussion, launched Rhythms of Change, a commissioning project for solo percussion that confronts the under-representation of women in classical programming and builds a lasting new repertoire.
Flute Perspectives, Vol. 1
Flautist Derek Jones and pianist Leigh Harrold present this anthology of contemporary Australian flute music, from Sculthorpe’s Torres Strait cycle to solo and duo works by leading local composers.