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Eve de Castro-Robinson  

A Resonance of Emerald

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1988, r. 1990
for mixed chamber ensemble

Neville Hall  

a splinter of silence in the belly of time

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1994
for string quartet and clarinet

Nigel Keay  

Adagietto Antique

Duration: 16' 00" Year: 2009
Trio for clarinet, viola & piano

Gareth Farr  

Ahi

Duration: 16' 00" Year: 2003
for piano trio

  • Instrumentation
    for violin, cello and piano
  • Programme Note

    In January 1998 Gareth Farr was commissioned by the James Wallace Chariable Trust to write this Piano Trio for the Ogen Trio, a leading NZ ensemble. Taking its subtitle Ahi from the Maori word for “fire”, it received its debut performance in Auckland, NZ in March 1998 in the presence of the composer. The style of the work varies in each of the four movements: the flavour of a French lullaby predominates in the first; an intense and unrelenting second movement harbours overtones of a Russian military factory; whilst a Balinese pop-inspired fourth movement contains numerous gamelan-like effects. The brief third movement is merely a quiet interlude, with a melodic reference to the first movement. The composition stands in stark contrast to Farr’s previous works. He has experimented with stripping away the density characteristic of past compositions in favour of clearer textures, exploring classical form, and allowing a simplicity of line to come through and speak for itself.

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Philip Brownlee  

As if to catch the fleeting tail of time

Duration: 16' 00" Year: 2009
for guitar and ensemble

Thomas Goss  

Broken Glass

Duration: 17' 05" Year: 2000
a suite for violin and guitar

  • Programme Note

    Broken Glass portrays a dialogue between two opposing natures about the passing of beauty as represented by the two instruments of guitar and violin. It is a meditation on how two people create the ending within themselves for their mutual story, and collaborate through both tension and surrender to bring that ending to life.

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Christopher Blake  

Clairmont Triptych

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1988
for wind quintet and piano

  • Instrumentation
    flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon and piano
  • Programme Note

    Clairmont Triptych was written in fulfilment of a commission by Chamber Music New Zealand for the Auckland Wind Quintet with pianist David Guerin to perform on a New Zealand tour in 1988.

    The music derives its inspiration and impetus from the work of the New Zealand painter Phillip Clairmont (1949 – 1984). He was something of an enfant terrible of the New Zealand art world, living his life and his painting with a reckless passion and energy. His work is vibrant and strong, conveying an intense and energetic power. Aspects of these elements are captured in the music, although it is not programmatic, but connects with paintings through analogy and allusion. Amongst the profusion of themes and ideas there are two prominent recurrent subjects in Clairmont’s work – the domestic interior and the self portrait. These form the thematic base of the first two of the three inter-linked movements of the work. The first movement, Interiors, mirrors the fractured vibrancy of the Clairmont interiors by use of a very fast toccata-like movement in sequences of fluctuating tempo. This creates a continuously “flexing” aural effect which reflects the unsettling quality of the images. The second movement, Self Portraits, uses a recurring three note motif C-B-Bb. These are the composer’s initials (C-H-B in German), thus the self portrait becomes ambiguous. The music seeks to realise to an extent the technique and viewpoint of the self portraits. The third movement, Jimi Rocks, refers to the influence of rock music on Clairmont’s painting, particularly during his studies and the early part of his career in Christchurch. The three movement formal structure is a musical equivalent of the triptych format Clairmont often used in his painting.

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Anthony Ritchie  

Clarinet Quintet

Duration: 18' 00" Year: 2006
for clarinet in A and string quartet

  • Programme Note

    Clarinet Quintet was commissioned by Christopher Marshall for his chamber music series “Christopher’s Classics” in 2006. It was written for Gretchen Dunsmore, clarinet, and The New Zealand String Quartet, for a premiere performance on September 13, 2006. The composition was also written as part of the composer’s work at The University of Otago. The point of departure in this work is Mozart, in the year of his 250th anniversary. Motivic ideas are derived from the opening melody of his Clarinet Quintet, using a magic square to transform the pitches. No direct reference is made to the Mozart theme until the third movement, which is more diatonic in character.



    The first movement begins mysteriously, with a clarinet solo interspersed with rustlings from the strings. This solo contains the seeds for the entire movement, which is fast, lively and angular, following the slow introduction. A more moody and edgy middle section gradually builds up to a climax near the end of this movement. Contrasting with this is a slow middle movement that opens with a simple and bold statement on the strings. Over the top of this the clarinet plays a lamenting melody. The first four notes are a quotation from the composer’s opera The God Boy (Mrs Sullivan’s motif) signifying anxiety and guilt. A slightly calmer middle section is free in tonality, and builds up strongly in intensity, followed by an abridged return to the opening. The finale is a ‘moto perpetuo’ movement in which the diatonic opening idea is undermined by subtle tensions in the music. Although it is fast-paced and lively, it is also weary and uneasy in tone. A rousing final section leads to a quiet, fading coda, as the life in the music is gradually exhausted.

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Christopher Prosser  

Dance Suite

Duration: 18' 26" Year: 2005
for flute and violin

Nigel Keay  

Diversions 1, 2 & 3

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 2003
for mixed chamber quintet

  • Instrumentation
    oboe, clarinet, violin, viola, double bass
  • Programme Note

    Diversions for quintet was written in 2003. The idea of a work for winds and strings grew out of two influences: the composer’s involvement in a group that had been playing the Prokofiev Quintet in G minor (Op.39) for Oboe, Clarinet, Violin, Viola and Double Bass, and his involvement in a performance of Copland’s Appalachian Spring for the original version of nine strings, three winds and piano.

    The title Diversions was initially chosen using the word in the sense of “distraction”, or, in other words, to be intended that the idea behind the work is essentially abstract without any attempted profound philosophical attachments, or images, in the Stravinskian sense that music is about nothing more than itself – something that I had been pondering at the time. But of course there is another sense to the word “diversion” which is “diverting from a specified course”, and here the question can be posed; what is the specified course for a composer? And if there is none, can there ever be a diversion? Each chooses one’s own language…..

    Diversions was first performed by the musicians of Orchestre 2021 on Thursday 30th October 2008, 20h30 in the Grand Salon of the Fondation des Etats-Unis, 15 boulevard Jourdan, Paris. The players were: Herbert Lashner – oboe, Erika Bliznik – clarinet, Aude de Larouzière – violin, Nigel Keay – viola, & Guillaume Pagnon – double bass.

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