Listen & tracks

2 of 7 tracks have a preview · 5 works · 74:46

The CrossingTony Gould 3 movements19:37
1. 1 first movement 7:15
2. 2 second movement 7:43
3. 3 third movement 4:39
4 Menin Gate Helen Gifford 8:50
5 Folly Andrew Ford 12:56
6 Sonata for Piano Julian Yu 24:26
7 Elektra Michael Kieran Harvey 8:57

Gould’s three-movement The Crossing was written for Harvey and draws on jazz and classical models without empty display. Gifford’s Menin Gate mourns the missing of Ypres. Ford’s Folly builds new variations on the old La Folia ground, and Yu’s single-movement Sonata for Piano was commissioned at substantial length.

Across the programme the fixed design of the score meets the risk and spontaneity of live performance, from ferocious figuration to quiet lyricism and the early computer morphing of overtones in Elektra itself.

In the artist’s words

This work, our first collaboration, grew out of my interest in dealing with the question of computer versus human performance – since Asimov's vision of the revolution in robotics (and his memorable description of a future synthesised music recital in the Foundation series) and the preference of composers like Zappa for computers over live musicians – and led me to wonder what were the compelling aspects of the live performance versus the perfect execution achievable on the new computer instruments.

This conundrum has increased and will continue to do so with the prosthetic integration of robotics with biology (and humans). Indeed it is increasingly impossible to avoid chemical intervention within the human lifecycle, so enhancement is now a human evolutionary reality.

I had spent some time exploring the intersection between what a composer hears, then realises on the computer, and then what is humanly possible in live performance. Ives, Nancarrow, Ferneyhough, Stockhausen, Boulez and others had been pushing these boundaries well before the rise of the PC but the ease and complexity of computer-generated music for the piano now begs the question: what is the performer for? If the performer will only be able to execute the score with varying degrees of failure, what is the point in attempting it in the first place? Should the composer ignore his/her own creative desires and only write what is comfortable for the performer and audience?

It boils down to whether humans wish to listen to intelligent machines or other humans. The answer seems to be: it depends. The prosthetic integration of artificial intelligence with human intelligence is an increasing fact of life within art. One wonders though whether an intelligent machine would ever want to play or listen to music for its own satisfaction.

I came to realise that what I was looking for in live performance could be found in Australian improvising pianists like Grabowsky, Nock and Tony Gould. There is in Gould's music – an experimentation and absorption in the moment; naturally a refreshing spontaneity but also a humility that is totally unlike the more painful histrionics of his overseas colleagues. The sense of playful irony is clearly evident in the music of Ford and Yu, where ancient forms are reinvigorated with the energy of popular music. The dark aspect of human technological advancement through human slaughter is mourned in the Gifford work Menin Gate.

Each of the works on this CD I think strives to express the tension in music between formula and spontaneity.

— Michael Kieran Harvey

Reviews

The latest collaboration between Move Records and the indefatigable master-pianist has Harvey performing works by four substantial Australian composers, three of the pieces commissioned especially for his volcanic talent. Taking pride of place are Tony Gould's three-part The Crossing, packed with the jazz expert's angular lyricism, and Julian Yu's sonata of 2005. Harvey also presents his engrossing reading of Andrew Ford's Folly, given to deserved acclaim in August's Piano! festival at the National Academy of Music, and Helen Gifford's striking Menin Gate. The CD concludes with its title-work, a highly challenging piano-plus-computer composition by Harvey himself.

— Clive O'Connell, The Age

Artists

Andrew Ford

composer

Andrew Ford is an Australian composer, writer and broadcaster whose work ranges from chamber and vocal scores to opera and piano cycles. He has won the Paul Lowin Prize for the song cycle Learning to Howl and a Green Room Award for the opera Rembrandt’s Wife.

Helen Gifford

composer

Helen Gifford OAM is an Australian composer whose music often draws on Balinese and Javanese elements. She writes for stage, orchestra, chamber ensemble and solo instruments.

Julian Yu

composer

Julian Yu is a multi-award-winning Australian composer whose musical language is imbued with elegance and expressiveness, both enhanced by impeccable craft and a special attention to detail.

Tony Gould

composer

Pianist and composer Tony Gould is one of Australia’s most respected musicians. His career has spanned jazz and other improvisatory forms as well as traditional and contemporary classical, and for decades he has stood at the forefront of music education in Australia.

Michael Kieran Harvey

piano

Australian pianist and composer Dr Michael Kieran Harvey FAHA is among the foremost interpreters of contemporary piano music of his generation. A champion of Australian music, he regularly commissions new work and has performed with the country’s leading contemporary ensembles and orchestras.