The Night Sky Glory: Songs and Choral Works by Lachlan Brown
Vocal works by Lachlan Brown: songs on poems by Victor Hugo, Heinrich Heine and Rainer Maria Rilke, with wordless vocalises and choral meditations for multi-tracked voices.
Jenna Roubos soprano
Len Vorster piano
Alastair Cooper-Golec tenor
Timothy Reynolds tenor
Lyndon Green tenor
George Vi violin i
Marianne Rothschild violin ii
Karen Columbine viola
Michelle John cello
Megan Reeve harp
Jimmy Hilton treble
Lachlan Redd organ
Holly Haines soprano, alto
Alison Rae-Jones soprano, alto
Elspeth Bawden soprano, alto
Legendary accompanist Len Vorster joins tenors Lyndon Green, Timothy Reynolds and Alastair Cooper-Golec and soprano Jenna Roubos in Brown’s settings of Hugo, Heine and Rilke.
The music tracks the poetry closely, by turn joyful, sensuous and melancholy.
The rest of the album is wordless: vocalises for Roubos with harp and for treble Jimmy Hilton with organ, then choral meditations and forest pieces sung by Brown with Elspeth Bawden, Alison Rae-Jones and Holly Haines.
Reviews
This first offering features pianist Len Vorster, soprano Jenna Roubos, soprano/altos Holly Haines and Alison Rae-Jones and Elspeth Bawden, treble Jimmy Hilton, tenors Timothy Reynolds and Alastair Cooper-Golec and Lyndon Green, the composer himself doubling as tenor and bass, harp Megan Reeve, violins George Vi and Marianne Rothschild, viola Karen Columbine, cello Michelle John, and organ Lachlan Redd. As you can see, some of these participants have been (and continue to be) significant members of the country’s (mainly Melbourne’s) musical community. Brown’s music is not impressive for its inventiveness but moves along well-trodden paths, compositional tropes that are very common territory. Much of it is pleasant and deft in its organization but it ignores most of what has happened in Western music over the last 120 years.
Artists

Lachlan Brown
Lachlan Brown is an Australian composer of Impressionist and Romantic music, shaped by Mahler, Debussy and Delius. He writes especially for harp, soprano, chamber ensembles and wordless choir.
Jenna Roubos
Jenna Roubos is a soprano who performs art song and wordless vocal music on Move. Her recordings include settings of German Romantic poetry and a song cycle drawn from ancient Chinese poems.

Len Vorster
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.

Holly Haines
Holly is a high-soprano singer. She has been involved in choirs, musical theatre (both in New York and Australia) and has recorded works for a local composer in Melbourne.
Audio previews
Tracks
- Frühling ist wiedergekommen Lachlan Brown 4:36
- Hier au soir Lachlan Brown 3:34
- Auf Flügeln des Gesanges Lachlan Brown 3:05
- Vocalise No. 1 for soprano and harp Lachlan Brown 4:12
- Vocalise No. 5 for treble and organ Lachlan Brown 5:26
- Schon horch Lachlan Brown 5:50
- The Night Sky Glory Lachlan Brown 3:10
- iii. 3:13
- iv. 2:37
- v. 4:47
- i. 1:56
- ii. 3:35
- Night Falls in the Forest Lachlan Brown 1:55
Meditations for choir Lachlan Brown
Forest Voices Lachlan Brown
Performers
- Lachlan Brown · tenor, bass · tracks 7–13
- Jenna Roubos · tracks 1 and 4
- Len Vorster · tracks 1, 2 and 6
- Alastair Cooper-Golec · tracks 2 and 6
- Timothy Reynolds · track 3
- Lyndon Green · track 3
- George Vi · violin i · track 3
- Marianne Rothschild · violin ii · track 3
- Karen Columbine · track 3
- Michelle John · track 3
- Megan Reeve · track 4
- Jimmy Hilton · treble · track 5
- Lachlan Redd · track 5
- Holly Haines · soprano, alto · tracks 7, 11 and 12
- Alison Rae-Jones · soprano, alto · tracks 8 and 9
- Elspeth Bawden · soprano, alto · tracks 10 and 13
Where to listen
The Night Sky Glory: Songs and Choral Works by Lachlan Brown is available for streaming through Spotify and Apple Music. It can also be purchased through the iTunes Music Store.
The Night Sky Glory: Songs and Choral Works by Lachlan Brown 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
- MCD 650
- List price
- $25.00 AUD
- Total playing time
- 47 minutes 56 seconds
- Release date
- 24 Apr 2024
- Musical work
copyright - © 2024 Lachlan Brown
- Sound recording
copyright - ℗ 2024 Move Records
- Category
- Classical
- Genres
- Contemporary Classical, Choral & Sacred, Vocal & Opera
- Barcode
- EAN 9314574065022
Related recordings

Summer Waves
Len Vorster plays a personal recital of short piano works by Gershwin, de Falla, Lord Berners, Berkeley, Field, Grieg, Debussy, Poulenc and Ravel, drawn toward summer light, dance rhythm and nocturne stillness.

By the Winding River: songs from old Chinese Poems by Lachlan Brown
In the tradition of Gustav Mahler’s The Song of the Earth, Lachlan Brown shapes ancient Chinese poems into a modern song cycle of wonder, nature, friendship and longing.

Lachlan Brown Chamber Works
Lachlan Brown’s Chamber Works offers an hour of beautiful, relaxing music for his favourite instruments and ensembles: piano, harp, organ, violin, cello and string quartet.

Sun Fun and other Disappointments: The music of Michael Easton
This compilation gathers British–Australian composer Michael Easton’s output from 1981 to 1993: solo and duo piano, a flute sonata, a piccolo concerto, song cycles, and four songs from his one-woman show Dorothy Parker Says.