Listen & tracks
3 of 17 tracks have a preview · 11 works · 44:38
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1 Hope in Spring Dulcie Holland 2:01
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2 River Mother, River Child (from ‘River Songs’) Betty Beath 2:32
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3 By Train (from ‘Wakeford Songs’) Melody Eötvös 4:30
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4 Come Sleep Peggy Glanville-Hicks 1:57
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5 Distant Lullaby (from ‘Art and Life’) Linda Kouvaras 2:29
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6 Lullaby Lisa Cheney 4:24
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7 Gratitude and Grief Lisa Cheney 7:22
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8 Brownhill Creek in Spring Miriam Hyde 5:56
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9 Dream Land Miriam Hyde 4:16
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10 Son of Mine Mary Mageau 5:03
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11 Crepe Myrtle Sky Deborah Cheetham Fraillon 4:08
The programme gathers works by Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, Lisa Cheney, Dulcie Holland, Peggy Glanville-Hicks, Linda Kouvaras, Miriam Hyde, Melody Eötvös, Mary Mageau, and Betty Beath — composers whose music is rooted in Australian stories, landscapes, and voices, and who together show the breadth of Australian art song.
Soprano Rebecca Cassidy is known for her range across early music and contemporary repertoire. Pianist Alex Raineri is a leading advocate of new music, valued for sensitive partnership and close work with Australian composers. Together they bring intimacy and clarity to these songs, drawing out emotional depth and a strong sense of place.
World-premiere recordings include Crepe Myrtle Sky (Cheetham Fraillon), Gratitude and Grief (Cheney), which turns on the joys and intensity of contemporary motherhood, and Son of Mine (Mageau / Oodgeroo Noonuccal). Each is a reflection on belonging, identity, and the bond of voice and piano.
Commissioned in part by the Brisbane Music Festival and supported by Creative Australia, Homegrown affirms the vitality of contemporary Australian art song in the hands of two of its foremost interpreters.
In the artist’s words
“I’m still learning how to breathe under this waterfall of gratitude and grief.” Jessica Urlichs (poet)
Gratitude and Grief grew from a commission by Alex Raineri to accompany one of my earliest works, Lullaby (2006) for voice and piano. When Lullaby was written, I was in my late teens, trying to glimpse what motherhood might feel like from the inside. Now I have two little girls under five, and the truth is more vivid than I imagined: motherhood is the most intense fusion of unconditional love, beauty, and joy, tempered by the worry that every version of them might not fit “in my heart’s locket”. This sentiment, the universal ache and wonder of motherhood, finds its echo in Jessica Urlichs’ untitled poem, which speaks to the depth of feeling we share. The music paints a picture of immense, deliciously complex, and utterly simple love, striving to capture the richness of contemporary motherhood.
Reviews
One of the most arresting is Mary Mageau’s treatment (1992) of Son of Mine (1960) by Oodgeroo Noonuccal, who may be better known to some readers as Kath Walker, renowned Aboriginal poet and activist. In clear, succinct language, Noonuccal addresses the “troubled eyes” of her young son Dennis; Mageau’s setting of these three short stanzas is appropriately sombre, restrained with a soaring melody. This is one of six works to be recorded for the first time ever on this significant and thoughtfully curated album. The recording by the Move Records team is rich and lush, complementing technically impressive, nuanced and seamlessly united performances from Raineri and Cassidy.
Artists
Alex Raineri
piano
Alex Raineri is an active recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician. Alex is the Artistic Director of the Brisbane Music Festival and is a passionate exponent of contemporary music, having given over 130 World Premieres to date.
Rebecca Cassidy
soprano
Rebecca Cassidy is a distinguished Australian soprano known for her exceptional vocal ability and strong presence across opera and concert stages. Her growing prominence is reflected in major performances, leadership roles, and nationwide recognition for her artistry.
Peggy Glanville-Hicks
composer
Peggy Glanville-Hicks (1912–1990) was an Australian composer, born in Melbourne, whose career carried her through London, New York and Greece. She wrote operas, chamber music, song cycles and a concise Sonata for Harp that remains widely played.
Dulcie Holland
composer
Dulcie Holland (1913–2000) was an Australian composer and music educator, known both for a wide body of concert works and for theory textbooks that shaped generations of students.
Miriam Hyde
composer
Miriam Hyde (1913–2005) was an Australian composer, pianist and teacher whose lyrical, post-romantic voice is especially known through her piano music and works for students.
Linda Kouvaras
composer
Linda Kouvaras is a pianist, composer and musicologist with a particular focus on contemporary Australian music. She has recorded, commissioned and premiered numerous new works for piano, and performs widely in city and regional centres.
Mary Mageau
composer
Mary Mageau (1934–2020) was an American-born Australian composer and harpsichordist whose catalogue spans orchestra, chamber music, solo works and voice. From 1974 she made her home in Queensland and became a distinctive voice in Australian contemporary music.
Betty Beath
composer
Betty Beath composes chamber music, art song and piano works that lean toward lyric line and reflective mood, often coloured by Balinese and Javanese scales and a quiet sense of place.
Lisa Cheney
composer
Lisa Cheney is an Australian composer whose chamber and vocal works often turn on intimate personal themes, including parenthood and the emotional intensity of contemporary family life.
Melody Eötvös
composer
Melody Eötvös writes contemporary scores that fuse electronics, poetry and percussion into otherworldly soundscapes, and large-scale piano sonatas that draw on literary and hidden worlds. Her music thrives on collaboration and the charged meeting of live player and fixed media.
John Fletcher
composer
John Fletcher is the lyricist of Come Sleep, a text long favoured in the English art-song tradition.
Deborah Cheetham Fraillon
composer
Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO, Yorta Yorta woman, soprano, composer and educator has been a leader and pioneer in the Australian arts landscape for more than 25 years.
Oodgeroo Noonuccal
composer
Christina Rossetti
composer
Christina Rossetti was a nineteenth-century poet whose verse has long been set as song. Her words appear as song texts across several Move recordings.
Jessica Urlichs
composer
Muriel Wakeford
composer
Jena Woodhouse
composer
Digital booklet
Digital booklet Notes, texts and credits — read online or download the PDF Download the PDFPerformers
- Alex Raineri · piano
- Rebecca Cassidy · soprano · all except track 8
Technical credits
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Recording Engineer
Vaughan McAlley
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Editing Engineer
Vaughan McAlley
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Mastering Engineer
Martin Wright
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Venue
Move Records Studio
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Credit
Ben Briggs
Courtenay Cleary
Details
- List price
- $25.00 AUD
- Total playing time
- 44 minutes 38 seconds
- Release date
- 21 Nov 2025
- Categories
- Australian, Classical
- Musical work copyright
- © 2025 Rebecca Cassidy and Alex Raineri
- Sound recording copyright
- ℗ 2025 Move Records
- Catalogue
- MCD 664
- EAN
- 8721416766404
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