Listen & tracks
3 of 15 tracks have a preview · 8 works · 77:43
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1 Giants in the Land Brenton Broadstock 10:40
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2 Recantations Johanna Selleck 5:42
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3 Secrets of the Amphitheatre Linda Kouvaras (from Bundanon Suite) 5:37
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Songs of Truth and LonelinessChristine McCombe 8 movements18:08
- 4 first song 3:24
- 5 fragmentation #1 1:59
- 6 lullaby 1:55
- 7 … 1:49
- 8 two voices alone 1:39
- 9 lux aeterna 1:53
- 10 fragmentation #2 3:24
- 11 truth 2:05
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12 New Roads, Old Destinations Stuart Greenbaum 10:12
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13 Long Flat Blues Stephen Ingham 6:43
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14 But I want the harmonica Stuart Greenbaum 8:00
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15 Dying of the Light Brenton Broadstock 12:41
Here was sung the first songs,
here was breathed the message of the sun –
in those days there were giants in the land.
There was also magic in the air.
Recorded in Melba Hall at the University of Melbourne, this world premiere finds Melbourne pianist Ian Holtham in recent Australian contemporary piano works by Brenton Broadstock, Linda Kouvaras, Stephen Ingham, Stuart Greenbaum, Johanna Selleck and Christine McCombe. Several pieces were written at Holtham’s instigation.
Kouvaras’s Secrets of the Amphitheatre opens her Bundanon Suite. McCombe’s eight-movement cycle and Greenbaum’s Escher-inspired New Roads, Old Destinations sit beside Broadstock’s Jean Bogan Prize–winning Dying of the Light.
Reviews
offers the listener many contrasting 'landscapes' to enjoy … This CD is remarkable for its sustained pianistic virtuosity and the depth, complexity and variety of the compositions.
Ian Holtham plays … with taste and admirable musicianship … the disc is highly recommended.
This release demonstrates the sheer artistic innovation and diversity of six Australian composers … fascinating repertoire.
an excellent program of Australian piano music
a brilliant cross-section of Australian contemporary piano works
Artists
Ian Holtham
piano
Professor Ian Holtham is one of Australia’s most distinguished and highly regarded pianists and pedagogues. His performances of the great Classical and Romantic repertoire have drawn packed houses and strong critical acclaim for many years.
Brenton Broadstock
composer
Brenton Broadstock is one of Australia’s most established, respected and successful mid-generation composers. Over several decades he has built a substantial, varied catalogue distinguished by expressive range, structural assurance and strong engagement with performers and audiences, nationally and internationally.
Stuart Greenbaum
composer
Stuart Greenbaum’s sound has overt connections to jazz, pop and minimalism, yet is equally grounded in the Western art music tradition, across a large body of orchestral, chamber, choral and stage works.
Stephen Ingham
composer
Stephen Ingham has had a broad and varied career as a composer,music critic and academic. He was awarded a doctorate by the University of York in 1981,where his research involved the application of computers to musical composition. Since 1993, he has lived and worked in Australia, where he was first employed in the Faculty of Music at the University of Melbourne.
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.
Christine McCombe
composer
Christine McCombe is a Melbourne-based Australian composer whose chamber and electroacoustic works explore silence, time and space. Her music has been performed by leading ensembles and soloists in Australia and abroad.
Johanna Selleck
composer
Johanna Selleck is a composer, musicologist, and flautist. She holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne, where she is an honorary fellow. Her compositions have been performed by internationally renowned artists across Australia, Europe, the USA, Asia, and the Middle East.
Digital booklet
Digital booklet Notes, texts and credits — read online or download the PDF Download the PDFPerformers
- Ian Holtham · piano
Technical credit
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Venue
Melba Hall
Details
- List price
- $25.00 AUD
- Total playing time
- 77 minutes 43 seconds
- Release date
- 20 May 2003
- Categories
- Australian, Classical, Keyboard
- Musical work copyright
- © 2002 Move Records
- Sound recording copyright
- ℗ 2002 Move Records
- Catalogue
- MD 3239
- EAN
- 9314574323924
More to explore
Scarlatti's Steinways at Melbourne
The remarkable output of 555 keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757) remains one of the most original contributions in Western art music. Pianist Ian Holtham selects 23 sonatas, sequenced into four Baroque tonal groupings and recorded on the Conservatorium’s four Steinway Model Ds.
Mozart
Having already tackled Liszt, Chopin and Godowsky, Ian Holtham turns to Mozart in this solo piano recital for Move, continuing his survey of the virtuoso keyboard repertoire.
Acts of Homage
Acclaimed pianist Ian Holtham marks the centenary of Brahms’s death and the bicentenary of Schubert’s birth. The programme sets Schubert’s late impromptus beside Brahms’s Handel Variations and late piano pieces, with Godowsky’s song transcriptions as a further homage.
Études
Ian Holtham, piano. Chopin’s twenty-four Études, Op. 10 and Op. 25: perfect examples of their genre, wonderfully innovative in texture and uncompromisingly challenging in technical difficulty.
Bach's Tonal Soundscape
Ian Holtham’s distinctive approach to Bach’s monumental Well-Tempered Clavier lets listeners hear the preludes and fugues organised by key, rather than the traditional and more artificial order by book.
Chopin Showcase
Ian Holtham, piano. The genesis of this recording was to assemble a number of the composer’s most attractive and original works as a mark of homage to one of the most outstandingly innovative and important composers for the piano who has ever lived.