Luz Meridional (Southern Light)
A CD with bonus DVD. Luz Meridional was composed by Andrián Pertout for pianist Michael Kieran Harvey. Its twenty-four solo piano études each contain a quotation from an early Australian composer.
The bonus DVD-ROM holds video of seven of the études, a short documentary about the work, and PDF documents and scores for Luz Meridional, including a long analytical essay by Arjun von Caemmerer. These can be copied from the DVD to a computer.
Quotations from the Australian composers are utilised and transformed through contrapuntal procedures, formal structures, pointillism, time-point sets, tempo canons, combinatoriality, imitation, linear additive models, ornamentation, ostinato, serialism, inversions and palindromes, interval exploration, reharmonisation, additive rhythms, bell-ringing sequences, De Bruijn sequences, isorhythms, metric modulations, non-retrogradable rhythms, polyrhythms, True Random Number Generators, and related techniques.
Commissioned by Julian Burnside as part of a 2009 State Library of Victoria Creative Fellowship, the cycle pays homage overall to Henry Cowell and was recorded live at the Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre.
Reviews
Rarely do I hear a new work that is so strong and meaningful and as full of so many delights as Andrián Pertout’s monumental piano work Luz Meridional. This is singularly one of the most important piano compositions ever written by an Australian composer. For me it ranks with the best works of Larry Sitsky and Richard Meale for intellectual approach, musical insight and sheer joy. Opening with Nino durmiente, a music that seduces with its innocence ... Elegia creates a sound-world that demands the utmost concentration ... Retrospectivo is a standout with rapidly moving notes evoking starlight and other ‘nightsky’ phenomena ... the movements are laid out in just the right order creating a perfect balance between the sombre and the introspective and the energetic. The performer on this CD, Michael Kieran Harvey, is the not only one of the finest pianists ever in Australia but one of a handful of ‘cultural warriors for the good’. He takes on challenging music and makes it a thrill for the audience. Playing Luz Meridional MKH draws forth varying textures and colours that allow the work to take on a life of its own. This is pianism of the highest order.
The works are fiercely virtuosic and employ extended techniques including muting, plucking and strumming of the piano strings. Luz Meridional was written for Michael Kieran Harvey, a pianist renowned for both his technical prowess and eagerness to embrace exploratory new works. ★★★★
Written for Harvey, the piece naturally exploits his strengths, notably the ability to play superhumanly fast and loud. Pertout, though, skilfully organises the cycle (alphabetically by composer) so that there is plenty of contrast. The dreamy ostinatos of the opening Niño durmiente (a homage to Roy Agnew) make a fine foil to the increasingly urgent terse pointillistic gestures of Encuentro, derived from John Antill’s Corroboree; the comparative sparseness of the Don Banks-inspired Diversión, with its background pedal-notes and foreground explosions of fioritura, is likewise set off by the moto perpetuo of the Balada after Arthur Benjamin. The piece is massive in conception and execution, a credit to both composer and performer.
Artists
Andrián Pertout
Andrián Pertout (b. 1963) is a Chilean-born Australian composer who settled in Melbourne in 1972. His rigorously structured music draws on wide cultural and mathematical resources and has been performed in more than forty countries.
Michael Kieran Harvey
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.
Arjun von Caemmerer
Dr Arjun von Caemmerer is a Hobart-based general medical practitioner, Iyengar Yoga teacher and practitioner, and writer. In 1995, with Naomi Cameron, he established The Hobart School of Iyengar Yoga.
Audio previews
Tracks
- Niño durmiente: Homenaje a Roy Agnew Andrián Pertout 2:26
- Encuentro: Homenaje a John Antill Andrián Pertout 2:58
- Diversión: Homenaje a Don Banks Andrián Pertout 3:46
- Balada: Homenaje a Arthur Benjamin Andrián Pertout 2:22
- Poema sinfónico: Homenaje a Clive Douglas Andrián Pertout 4:37
- Danza de guerra: Homenaje a Peggy Glanville-Hicks Andrián Pertout 2:05
- Caleidoscopio: Homenaje a Eugene Goossens Andrián Pertout 1:38
- Canción colonial: Homenaje a Percy Grainger Andrián Pertout 2:25
- Nostalgia: Homenaje a Raymond Hanson Andrián Pertout 2:18
- El bosque: Homenaje a Fritz Hart Andrián Pertout 2:01
- Melancolía: Homenaje a Marjorie Hesse Andrián Pertout 2:57
- Retrospectivo: Homenaje a Alfred Hill Andrián Pertout 2:37
- Meditación: Homenaje a Mirrie Hill Andrián Pertout 1:19
- Elegía: Homenaje a Dulcie Holland Andrián Pertout 2:08
- Síntesis: Homenaje a Robert Hughes Andrián Pertout 1:43
- Bagatela: Homenaje a Keith Humble Andrián Pertout 1:08
- En la piscina: Homenaje a Frank Hutchens Andrián Pertout 2:58
- El anillo de nuevas campanas: Homenaje a Miriam Hyde Andrián Pertout 5:33
- Fantasma del mar: Homenaje a Horace Keats Andrián Pertout 1:20
- Gloria: Homenaje a Louis Lavater Andrián Pertout 7:34
- Despedida: Homenaje a Dorian Le Gallienne Andrián Pertout 3:17
- Tres bosquejos: Homenaje a William Lovelock Andrián Pertout 7:10
- Himno para la muerte de Jesús: Homenaje a James Penberthy Andrián Pertout 3:31
- Seis perfiles: Homenaje a Margaret Sutherland Andrián Pertout 3:07
DVD:
- DVD-ROM Andrián Pertout
Performers
- Michael Kieran Harvey · all except
Contributors
Documentary film
Ivan Hexter
Where to listen
Luz Meridional (Southern Light) is available for streaming through Spotify and Apple Music. It can also be purchased through the iTunes Music Store.
Luz Meridional (Southern Light) is available as a CD. It can be purchased online through Buywell Music or the Australian Music Centre which both offer online ordering.
Product details
- Catalogue number
- MD 3435
- List price
- $25.00 AUD
- Total playing time
- 72 minutes 58 seconds
- Contributor
- Arjun von Caemmerer
- Recording Engineer
- Martin Wright
- Editing Engineer
- Vaughan McAlley
- Mastering Engineer
- Martin Wright
- Venue
- Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre
- Credit
- Ivan Hexter
- Release date
- 2 Nov 2018
- Musical work
copyright - © 2018 Move Records
- Sound recording
copyright - ℗ 2018 Move Records
- Category
- Classical
- Genres
- Contemporary Classical, Modernist Classical
- Barcode
- EAN 9314574343526
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