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

Night Thoughts

During the long still nights of Melbourne’s Covid lockdowns, pianist Len Vorster listened widely and thought hard about what he heard. Those evening ruminations became this programme of fifteen nocturnes and night pieces, from Schumann’s circle to Copland.

Len Vorsterpiano
  • CatalogueMCD 647
  • Released15 Sep 2023
  • Playing time70 minutes 50 seconds

Listen & tracks

15 works · 70:50

  1. 1 In the Night – A Love Poem Ernest Bloch 4:59
  2. 2 Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. 19 No. 4 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 3:49
  3. 3 Soirées musicales, Op. 6 No. 2 Clara Schumann Notturno in F major 5:18
  4. 4 Nocturne No. 11 in F-sharp minor, Op. 104 No. 1 Gabriel Fauré 4:43
  5. 5 Silberstreif – Nocturne in E major, Op. 1 No. 1 Jillian Rose Tymms 5:11
  6. 6 “1922” Suite for Piano, Op. 26 Paul Hindemith iii. Nachtstück 5:51
  7. 7 Aux étoiles… Henri Duparc 6:03
  8. 8 3 Fantasy Pieces, Op. 6 Charles Tomlinson Griffes ii. Notturno 7:44
  9. 9 Nocturne – Seascape Peter Sculthorpe 1:57
  10. 10 Nocturne No. 1 Erik Satie 2:57
  11. 11 Nocturne No. 4, Bal fantôme Francis Poulenc 1:29
  12. 12 Sonata for Flute and Piano Michael Easton ii. Nocturne [arr. Len Vorster] 4:41
  13. 13 Nocturne from Giselle’s Mania Leonid Desyatnikov 4:34
  14. 14 Moments of Night No. 4 Peter Klatzow 3:27
  15. 15 Night Thoughts ‘Homage to Ives’ Aaron Copland 8:07

Night Thoughts took shape in 2020, when curfew stillness gave Vorster room to sit with music that answered the pandemic’s mix of fear, frustration and a stubborn hope of light ahead.

Jillian Rose Tymms’s Silberstreif, written for him that year, holds that uncharted mood. The 2022 sessions also mark a centenary: Bloch’s love poem In the Night and Hindemith’s Nachtstück from the “1922” Suite, both composed just after the Spanish flu. The recital closes on the tolling bells of Copland’s Night Thoughts.

This is Vorster’s second solo piano album on Move; the first was Summer Waves (2003).

In the artist’s words

The title Silberstreif translates loosely to ‘ray of light’ and/or ‘light at the end of the tunnel’. I chose this title because I wanted this piece to be evocative of the tumultuous feelings that Covid-19 thrust upon Victorians, and to represent how we all longed for ‘lockdown’ to end. I composed this work during Melbourne’s second ‘lockdown’. The chromaticism and unusual modulations resemble restlessness, hopelessness and a sense of searching for answers – where there were often none to be found.

— Jillian Rose Tymms

Reviews

Len Vorster has assembled here a stimulating mix of night pieces by 15 composers from 9 different countries including South Africa (Peter Klatzow) and Ukraine (Leonid Desyatnikov). He opens with a sombre piece by the Swiss composer Ernest Bloch and here all the virtues of Len Vorster’s pianism are displayed: superb control of subtle dynamic gradation even at the softest dynamic levels, beautifully judged rubato and an innate understanding of all the diverse compositional styles. His skillful layering of complex textures and his refined pedalling are also evident throughout this album. The Notturno by the American impressionist Charles Griffes is a real find, which Vorster delivers with great poetry. The CD also includes Vorster’s own skillful transcription of Michael Easton’s Nocturne for flute and piano. If like me you tend to avoid anthologies such as this, I nevertheless urge you to hear this beautifully played collection, to which I have listened a number of times with increased enthusiasm.

— Daniel Herscovitch, Loud Mouth Music Trust e-zine

Artists

Photograph of Len Vorster

Len Vorster

piano

Len Vorster is one of Australia's finest accompanists, and artistic director of Classical Palette (a Naxos series devoted to contemporary music), of the Schirmer Ensemble, and of the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival.

 Photograph of Ernest Bloch

Ernest Bloch

composer

Ernest Bloch (1880–1959) was a Swiss-born American composer whose best-known music draws on Jewish cultural and liturgical themes. An eclectic modernist, he shaped a dramatic, original language especially eloquent in writing for strings and orchestra.

 Photograph of Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland

composer

Aaron Copland wrote the open, slowly shifting harmonies many still hear as the sound of American music. His vernacular style of the 1930s and 1940s gave ballet, song and chamber works a plain-spoken clarity that reaches from folk song to fanfare.

 Photograph of Michael Easton

Michael Easton

composer

Michael Easton (1954–2004) was a British-born composer, pianist and arranger who settled in Melbourne in 1982. His music is accessible, wickedly witty and finely crafted, drawing on French models and jazz.

 Photograph of Gabriel Fauré

Gabriel Fauré

composer

Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924) was a French composer, pianist, organist and teacher whose music links late Romanticism with early modernism. His best-known works include the Requiem, the Pavane, and a large body of songs and piano music.

 Photograph of Paul Hindemith

Paul Hindemith

composer

Paul Hindemith wrote music that thinks like Bach and speaks in a lean modern tongue: dense counterpoint, clear forms, and harmony that uses every chromatic note without abandoning tonality. His sonatas for ordinary and unlikely instruments remain essential working repertoire.

 Photograph of Francis Poulenc

Francis Poulenc

composer

Francis Poulenc's music swings from boulevard wit to peasant devotion. Perpetual-motion piano, chamber sonatas, horn élégies, Christmas and penitential motets, a Gloria, and songs that can flirt, mourn or protest sit side by side in the catalogue.

 Photograph of Erik Satie

Erik Satie

composer

Erik Satie's piano music moves in slow, spare circles. The Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes rest on simple modal melodies and unresolved chords, cool, unhurried and strangely weightless.

 Photograph of Peter Sculthorpe

Peter Sculthorpe

composer

Peter Sculthorpe (1929–2014) was a Tasmanian-born composer whose orchestral and chamber music drew the Australian landscape, neighbouring Asian traditions and Indigenous materials into a clear, personal language. He wrote extensively for strings, piano and voice.

 Photograph of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

composer

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic era. His ballets, concertos and orchestral works remain among the most widely performed music in the classical repertoire.

 No photograph: Leonid Desyatnikov

Leonid Desyatnikov

composer

 No photograph: Henri Duparc

Henri Duparc

composer

Henri Duparc left a handful of late-Romantic mélodies that still define the French art song: long-breathed lines, restless piano writing and an almost unbearable concentration of longing set to Baudelaire, Gautier and Goethe.

 No photograph: Charles Tomlinson Griffes

Charles Tomlinson Griffes

composer

Charles Tomlinson Griffes wrote piano, chamber and vocal music that moved from German Romanticism toward a distinctive American Impressionism, rich in colour, exotic atmosphere and synthetic scales.

 No photograph: Peter Klatzow

Peter Klatzow

composer

 No photograph: Clara Schumann

Clara Schumann

composer

Clara Schumann's chamber and piano works speak with lyrical warmth and intimate Romantic colour. Her Notturno and Three Romances, Op. 22, carry melodic lines that sit naturally under the fingers and in the ear, music shaped for the salon and the recital stage.

 No photograph: Jillian Rose Tymms

Jillian Rose Tymms

composer

Jillian Rose Tymms is a dedicated female Australian composer, teacher, and musician, whose artistic journey has been guided by a deep passion for music and a profound connection to the world around her.

Digital booklet

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

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$25.00 AUD

Compact disc

Buywell Music Australian Music Centre

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Also available to download from the iTunes Store.

Performers

Technical credits

  • Producer Thomas Grubb
  • Recording Engineer Jack Montgomery-Parkes
  • Venue Iwaki Auditorium, Melbourne
  • Credit Nicholas Chan
    Phil Sander
    Sonja Michelini

Details

List price
$25.00 AUD
Total playing time
70 minutes 50 seconds
Release date
Category
Classical
Genres
Romantic & Impressionist, Contemporary Classical
Musical work copyright
© 2023 Len Vorster
Sound recording copyright
℗ 2023 Move Records
Catalogue
MCD 647
EAN
9314574064728

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