Listen & tracks

7 works · 56:10

1 Jongo Paulo Bellinati 4:00
TonadillaJoaquín Rodrigo 3 movements11:39
1. 2 i. Allegretto ma non troppo 2:32
2. 3 ii. Minueto pomposo 5:15
3. 4 iii. Allegro vivace 3:52
5 Valses poéticos Enrique Granados (arr. Duo Gruber/Maklar) 14:13
6 Sidekick Katie Jenkins (World Premiere Recording) 7:01
7 Clair de Lune Claude Debussy (arr. Ziggy and Miles) 5:01
8 Trin Warren Tam-boore Ken Murray (World Premiere Recording) 7:30
9 Songs from the Forest Nigel Westlake 6:46

The title track is a character piece by Katie Jenkins that satirises the brothers’ unbreakably strong but at times hilarious dynamic.

The programme also takes in Bellinati’s Jongo, Rodrigo’s Tonadilla, Granados’s Valses poéticos, Ken Murray’s Trin Warren Tam-boore and Westlake’s Songs from the Forest, with world premiere recordings of the Jenkins and Murray works.

In the artist’s words

Smack bang in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, I found myself confined to the four, pale blue walls of my college dorm room. Across the hall were two guitarists, Miles and Ziggy Johnston; I was convinced, at the time, they were twins. I later realized that they were brothers who finished each other’s sentences, read each other’s minds and had a musical synergy that was quite remarkable. I noticed that at times, their performances would sound like one person playing with 12 strings! When they asked me to write them a duo, I knew that I wanted to create a custom character piece that was as playful and humorous as the dynamic between them. The result is a work that takes us through the many and varied moments I encountered, living with the Johnston brothers as Juilliard students. They make fun of each other but need each other, they compete with one another but are stronger together. Sidekick satires their unbreakably strong but at times hilarious brotherly dynamic. This work is dedicated to the Johnston brothers with deep gratitude for their musical super-powers, camaraderie, and friendship!

— Katie Jenkins

The piece reflects the joy I have felt at visiting the Trin Warren Tam-boore wetlands on the north-western edge of Royal Park in Melbourne over the past few years. During the lockdowns of 2020/21 residents were restricted to a five-kilometre zone for travel and Trin Warren was just within my range. It’s a great example of urban design where stormwater is treated, and native birds are attracted by rich variety of plant and animal life. Trin Warren and its surrounds are a real haven for smaller birds such as honeyeaters, pardalotes, robins, wrens and finches, and also for parrots like the Eastern rosella, musk lorikeets and the red-rumped parrot. The name was given by the Wurundjeri people, the indigenous custodians of the Melbourne area, and means Bellbird Waterhole.

— Ken Murray

Reviews

transfixingly beautiful

— Limelight

Artists

Ziggy and Miles

ensemble

Ziggy and Miles are Australian guitarist brothers whose duo playing is known for transfixing synchronicity and a full range of colour and technique. They are forging an international career built on major competition success.

Paulo Bellinati

composer

Paulo Bellinati's guitar writing draws on Brazilian dance and song. His Jongo has become a recital staple, full of playful rhythmic drive, while pieces such as Um Amor de Valsa and Baião de Gude show the same ear for colour and groove.

Claude Debussy

composer

Claude Debussy (1862–1918) was a French composer whose harmony, colour and flexible sense of key reshaped European music at the turn of the twentieth century. Piano, orchestral and chamber works from his maturity remain central to the repertoire.

Enrique Granados

composer

Enrique Granados was born in Lérida in 1867. He studied the piano and composition in Barcelona and then in Paris, returning to Barcelona in 1889, and won distinction as a pianist and popularity in Spain with his zarzuelas and piano music.

Katie Jenkins

composer

Katie Jenkins is a Welsh composer and producer whose music for stage, screen and the concert hall is coloured by her heritage. She writes across solo, chamber, choral and orchestral forms, often in close collaboration with dance, film and multimedia.

Ken Murray

composer

Ken Murray (b. 1968) is a Melbourne guitarist and composer working across classical and electric guitar in contemporary chamber music.

Joaquín Rodrigo

composer

Joaquín Rodrigo gave the classical guitar its most enduring twentieth-century voice. His Concierto de Aranjuez, Fantasía para un gentilhombre and smaller Spanish works still define how the instrument sings with orchestra, flute or voice: clear lines, warm colour and an unmistakable Iberian lilt.

Nigel Westlake

composer

Westlake has played in fusion bands and soundtrack sessions, with Australia’s leading instrumental groups, and as a soloist with orchestras and classical ensembles in Australia and in major cities worldwide, from London and Paris to Tokyo, Beijing and New York.

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

Ziggy and Miles · ensemble
Ziggy Johnston · acoustic guitar
Miles Johnston · acoustic guitar

Technical credits

Producer Alan Liu
Miles Johnston
Wei Wang
Ziggy Johnston
Recording Engineer Wei Wang
Editing Engineer Shen (Rick) Liu
Mastering Engineer Wei Wang
Venue Skillman Music Recording Studio, New York City, USA
Credit Anthony Cristiano
Jim Redgate
John Griffiths
Martin Wright
Shervin Lainez