Listen & tracks

8 works · 69:49

Ecstatic preludes (2005)Tom Henry 3 movements5:11
1. 1 i. Like an omen 1:44
2. 2 ii. Sensual and languid :59
3. 3 iii. Calm and flowing 2:28
Studies for modern times (2005)Tom Henry 3 movements7:51
1. 4 i. Pop song 2:19
2. 5 ii. April 2005 3:09
3. 6 iii. Film theme 2:23
From ‘Pieces for children’ (2006)Tom Henry 2 movements5:33
1. 7 A sad story 2:39
2. 8 Barcarolle 2:54
Songs without words (2003–2006)Tom Henry 3 movements10:35
1. 9 i. Remembrance 3:40
2. 10 ii. Nocturne 3:32
3. 11 iii. New York 3:23
Three short pieces for piano (2005)Tom Henry 3 movements1:41
1. 12 i. Andante :34
2. 13 ii. Piu agitato :35
3. 14 iii. Molto allegro :32
Piano Sonata No. 1 (2006, revised 2011)Tom Henry 3 movements14:48
1. 15 i. Theme (Quasi recitativo: molto drammatico, con rubato) 1:20
2. 16 ii. Variations 5:18
3. 17 iii. Moto perpetuo 8:10
Three pieces for piano (2010)Tom Henry 3 movements11:24
1. 18 i. Intermezzo 2:55
2. 19 ii. Light in dark 5:31
3. 20 iii. Toccata 2:58
21 Piano Sonata No. 2 (2018) Tom Henry ‘on the name of Grevis Beard’ 12:46

While Tom Henry spent his early years preoccupied with the velvety, golden sound of the flute, this recording charts his later and enduring love affair with the piano. From the first short solo pieces through to the two complex and challenging piano sonatas, Light in dark traces twenty years in the life of a composer.

Pianist Jennifer Enchelmaier, his long-time collaborator, brings to each work her unmistakable warm and lyrical touch.

The title comes from the second movement of Three pieces for piano, dedicated to Henry’s former composition teacher, the late Lawrence Whiffin. That work stands about midway in his piano output, so the programme is deliberately varied, even touching Broadway.

Reviews

Tom Henry’s Light in Dark conveys the composer’s intriguing journey over a two-decade period, with all its twists, turns and resolutions. The thing to note first and foremost about Tom Henry’s compositions is that every sonority is considered, and then considered again before a commitment is made to it. Light in Dark, an album inclusive of all his solo piano works to date, provides abundant evidence of this fact. Generous album that it is, with more than an hour of listening, it demonstrates diversity of expression, from Henry’s searching and life-tentative Piano Sonata No. 1, to his fluidic and highly romantic Songs Without Words and the more recent, ebullient, Piano Sonata No. 2. The style of these works has altered over a twenty-year period and been particularly influenced by his teachers. However, as Henry notes, there is ‘a creative tension between tradition and modernity’ across his oeuvre. But there seems an acceptance of the influence of these differing styles in his later works, which contribute to the unique sound he has developed in their combination. Jennifer Enchelmaier is the fine performer on Light in Dark. Having previously interpreted Henry’s earlier works, she demonstrates her profound understanding of his music, which is often highly complex, and always demanding attention to nuance. Henry provides extensive notes on the works presented in Light in Dark. His compositional journey is intriguing with the last work on it ultimately a natural culmination of what has come before. Tracing that path by engaging with his music, particularly with the consistency of Enchelmaier’s wonderful interpretations, is both a privilege and a delight.

— Mandy Stefanakis, Music Trust e-zine Loud Mouth

Why not take all of me. One of the oddest anthologies I’ve come across, this CD features all the (till-now) known piano solo music by Tom Henry, a Melbourne-based composer who began his career path as a flautist before changing to the more idealistic, top-of-the-class transcendental role of a composer. He has an ideal interpreter in Enchelmaier who lavishes her skills on rich and poor alike – or perhaps it would be better to distinguish between the junior and the elder, the tyro and the proficient, the smooth and the rough. What is apparent is that Henry travelled through a not-uncommon creative trajectory that began with imitations of the masters, then switched overnight to a cracker-jack contemporary style which takes the wind out of your sails through its stark contrast. You have to take your hat off to Henry who reveals every part of his achievements on this disc; it’s not a Greatest Hits selection but the entire oeuvre that he has written (so far) for solo piano. He shows us his beginnings with a late (and sometimes middle) 19th century bent, using the conventions of that time (in fact, there’s rather a lot of these pieces, as they take over half-an hour of the CD’s 72 minutes’ length); then comes the abrupt shift to a world of technique-shaking demands familiar to us survivors of the challenges promulgated by Bussotti, Berio and Kagel (not to mention the apparent insanities committed to manuscript by Pousseur and Ferneyhough); finally, it’s an arrival at the ‘new lyricism’ where ev’ry compositional mountain and hill is made low. All of this makes for a refreshing, wholesome hejira, one that is probably not completed. Along his path, Henry has been gifted with a sympathetic and conscientious interpreter who exerts her considerable interpretative craft across each of these 21 tracks.

— Clive O'Connell, O'Connell the Music

Pianist Jennifer Enchelmaier, the composer’s long-time collaborator, brings to each of the works on this CD her unmistakeable warm and lyrical touch. If you have even a passing interest in modern repertoire, or just love a bit of piano music, you must get this album and give your ears a treat.

— Kate Rockstron, Readings Monthly

Artists

Jennifer Enchelmaier

piano

Jennifer Enchelmaier is a sought-after collaborative pianist and language/diction coach for singers. She was recently appointed to sessional staff at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, coaching and accompanying the post-graduate opera class, and was an accompanist for the 2022 Queensland Vocal Competition Festival.

Tom Henry

composer

Tom Henry is an Australian composer of works for solo piano, organ, voice, choir, chamber ensemble and orchestra. His music has been performed in Australia, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Canada.

Digital booklet

Digital booklet Notes, texts and credits — read online or download the PDF Download the PDF

Buy now

$25.00 AUD

Compact disc

Buywell Music Australian Music Centre

Stream now

Apple Music Spotify

Also available to download from the iTunes Store.

Performers

Jennifer Enchelmaier · piano

Technical credits

Producer Tom Henry
Recording Engineer Martin Wright
Editing Engineer Vaughan McAlley
Mastering Engineer Martin Wright
Venue Move Records Studio
Credit Benjamin Briggs
Gabrielle Henry

Details

List price: $25.00 AUD
Total playing time: 69 minutes 49 seconds
Release date: 1 Nov 2022
Categories: Australian, Keyboard
Genres: Contemporary Classical, Modernist Classical
Catalogue: MD 3465
EAN: 9314574346527

More to explore

Gold

The Australian Chamber Choir, directed by Douglas Lawrence, performs works by eight Australian composers. From Gordon Kerry’s Shakespeare setting to Malcolm Williamson’s English Eccentrics, the programme turns individual voices into pure gold.

Flute Perspectives, Vol. 3

The third release in Derek Jones’s series, Flute Perspectives 3 continues to convey the synergy of Australia’s varied classical flute repertoire, with newly commissioned works, some recorded here for the first time.

Astra 60

This recording captures a concert of Australian piano music celebrating Astra’s long support of Australian composers and performers. For sixty years the Astra Chamber Music Society has placed new Australian work beside international new-music currents, always with a distinctive cultural frame.