Move Records Australian classical & art music, est. 1968
Front cover art for Threnody

Threnody

Michael Kieran Harvey’s landmark 1995 Astra recital of late twentieth-century Australian piano music returns in a 2024 Move re-master. Premiere recordings by Harvey, Vine, Campbell, McCaughey, Byrne, Humble and Anderson form one continuous programme.

Michael Kieran Harveypiano
  • CatalogueMD 3475
  • Released2024
  • Playing time62 minutes 4 seconds

Listen & tracks

4 of 26 tracks have a preview · 9 works · 62:04

  1. 1 Toccata DNA Michael Kieran Harvey 8:13
  2. Five BagatellesCarl Vine 4 movements6:49
    1. 2 i. Darkly 2:44
    2. 3 ii. Leggiero e legato 1:11
    3. 4 iii. Gentle 1:43
    4. 5 iv. Untitled 1:11
  3. 6 Quaquaversal Stuart Campbell 7:17
  4. Eight PreludesJohn McCaughey 8 movements8:24
    1. 7 i. Fluent :39
    2. 8 ii. Presto segreto 1:06
    3. 9 iii. Animated, hastening :41
    4. 10 iv. Quick :59
    5. 11 v. A sense of slow background tempo 1:36
    6. 12 vi. Semplice :43
    7. 13 vii. Leggiero, recitativo 1:02
    8. 14 viii. Serene 1:38
  5. 15 Within Stanzas Andrew Byrne 7:17
  6. Eight BagatellesKeith Humble 8 movements7:01
    1. 16 i. Fast :36
    2. 17 ii. Slow :53
    3. 18 iii. For Tony P., very slow, molto rubato 2:25
    4. 19 iv. Move it :31
    5. 20 v. Agitato :23
    6. 21 vi. EKE Bounce easily (and naturally) :26
    7. 22 vii. Slow 1:17
    8. 23 viii. Very fast :30
  7. 24 Reveria im Neuen Stil James Anderson 6:23
  8. 25 Addict Michael Kieran Harvey 7:12
  9. 26 Five Bagatelles Carl Vine v. Threnody – for all the innocent victims 3:28

The opening Toccata DNA (1993) also appears, revised in 2017, on Harvey’s PRTZL.

The recital is shaped as one continuous arc: Vine’s bagatelles and McCaughey’s brief preludes lead through Humble’s late bagatelles to Harvey’s own Addict, for piano with computer processing. Vine’s closing Threnody, written for the Australian National AIDS Trust, gives the disc its title.

Most of the programme was recorded at Ron Craig Studios, Mittagong, in 1995; three works were taped at ABC Southbank. Martin Wright re-mastered the set for this edition in 2024.

Reviews

Addict strikes me as some of the best music on the disc, especially the passages in which the computer-altered piano sonorities are in the foreground ... Harvey's disc functions as one big piece (no mean feat, given that it involves the works of seven composers). The gaps between the works and movements are minimal so that the pieces tend to run into each other, and the music is distributed so as to allow a single shape to emerge. The first four of Vine's Five Bagatelles are second on the disc, but the fifth – which gives the disc its title – is placed last. Harvey's Addict which is the penultimate work, functions as the CD's climax, not only in terms of its raw energy and extended sound world, but also because the computer music contains references to other music already heard on the disc.

— Andrew Ford, 24 Hours (ABC)

Harvey's own works are the best-sounding ones ... Toccata DNA is written in the old developing variations technique. Its supreme lightness comes from germ cells ... This is fast, flashy and good music that deserves more exposure. The same goes for Addict, for piano and what sounds like live electronics ... The talented Harvey turns in truly fantastic performances of all this difficult music.

— Lyle Chan, Soundscapes

Re-mastered by the indispensable Martin Wright, this CD underlines with pretty heavy scoring the debt that Australian music owes to Harvey, whose dedication to the local product (both the significant and the not-so-remarkable) has remained unswerving across his long, seemingly tireless career. All these pieces occupy a compressed compositional time-span, testament to the performer’s intense curatorship as well as demonstrating a sudden temporal rush to the Australian compositional head/brain from composers both well-known and obscure. The recording is well worth obtaining as a witness to Harvey’s unfailing musicianship as well as a document of this country’s (well, Melbourne’s, mainly) aggressively active music scene and the wealth of talent at work in it across these few years.

— Clive O'Connell, O'Connell the Music

Artists

Photograph of Michael Kieran Harvey

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.

 Photograph of James Anderson

James Anderson

composer

James Anderson is a Melbourne composer, poet and pianist. He has written instrumental, chamber and electronic music.

 Photograph of Andrew Byrne

Andrew Byrne

composer

Andrew Byrne is a Australian composer based in New York, who has written works for film, dance, theater, and the concert hall. His music, which always betrays a fascination with polyrhythm, is influenced by American experimental music and non-Western music.

 Photograph of Stuart Campbell

Stuart Campbell

composer

Stuart Campbell, originally from New Zealand, was lecturer in Music at LaTrobe University, and a well-known keyboard performer and composer in a variety of areas including jazz and improvisation.

 Photograph of Keith Humble

Keith Humble

composer

Keith Humble won the National Critics Award in 1977 as the most outstanding recitalist working in Australia, and was appointed AM in 1982 for services to music. He was a constant champion of Australian contemporary music and of Percy Grainger.

 Photograph of Carl Vine by photographer Keith Saunders

Carl Vine

composer

Carl Vine AO is one of Australia's best-known and most often performed composers, with an orchestral catalogue of eight symphonies and thirteen concertos. His piano music is played widely around the world, and recordings of his work appear on more than seventy albums across the major streaming services.

 No photograph: John McCaughey

John McCaughey

composer

John McCaughey is a Melbourne conductor and composer, and long-serving musical director of the Astra Chamber Music Society, known for adventurous programmes of Australian music.

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

Technical credits

  • Recording Engineer Michael Hewes (tracks 15, 24 and 25)
    Ron Craig (tracks 1–14, 16–23 and 26)
  • Mastering Engineer Martin Wright
  • Venue ABC Studios, Melbourne (tracks 15, 24 and 25)
    Ron Craig Studios (tracks 1–14, 16–23 and 26)

Details

List price
$25.00 AUD
Total playing time
62 minutes 4 seconds
Release date
Categories
Australian, Classical, Keyboard
Genres
Contemporary Classical, Modernist Classical
Musical work copyright
© 1995 Astra Chamber Music Society
Sound recording copyright
℗ 2024 Move Records
Catalogue
MD 3475
EAN
9314574347524

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