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Lachlan McKenzie  

Alice in Wonderland - a ballet suite

Duration: 21' 00" Year: 2003
a ballet suite for orchestra

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Chris Adams  

Anastasis

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 2009
for full orchestra

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  • Instrumentation
    3*3*3**3*;4331;timp; perc; hp; strings
  • Programme Note

    Anastasis is an exploration of musical contrasts where chamber music elements of intimacy and social interplay are juxtaposed with the colour and power of a full symphonic orchestra. Baroque Concerto Grosso traditions form the conceptual basis of Anastasis: instrumental divisions within the orchestra, like the wind sections, are exploited, and new instrumental groupings have been created using combinations of individual players across the ensemble. Elements from the twentieth century Concerto for Orchestra form have also been utilised, particularly the focus on the diversity of instrumental colour, extended instrumental range and virtuosity, and the array of dynamic and textural possibilities.

    “Anastasis, our first taste of the APO’s resident composer, Chris Adams, proved to be a most attractive score.

    Adams knows where and how to uncover unexpected colours in a piece that enjoys jolting us with huge orchestral shouts in among more subdued, almost filigree passages.

    The second movement unfolds, with woodwind patterning, from lounge-laden harmonies and Adams nods to all manner of musics throughout the piece, right through to its conga-line finale.

    It is an appealing score that deserves a life beyound this single performance."

    William Dart, NZ Herald 7th September, 2009
    For the full article please click here

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Kenneth Young  

Concerto for Euphonium and Orchestra

Duration: 23' 00" Year: 2004
a four movement work for solo euphonium and full orchestra

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John Rimmer  

Europa

Duration: 25' 00" Year: 2002
concerto for brass band and orchestra

Score Sample
  • Instrumentation

    Orchestra:(1)2,2,2(1),2(1); 4331; timp., perc. (3), hp; strings. (Percussion: small and large suspended cymbals, tam tam, glockenspiel, vibraphone, xylophone, tubular bells, snare drum, 2 bongos, 3 tom toms, bass drum.)
    Brass Band: sop cornet, solo cornet, 1st cornet, 2nd cornet, 3rd cornet, flugelhorn, tenor horn, baritone, tenor trombone, bass trombone, E flat euphonium, E flat bass, B flat bass
  • Programme Note

    In composing this concerto I recognise two contrasting musical cultures within the European artistic tradition. The Brass Band represents what I call a ‘closed’ musical system portrayed by its standardised instrumentation heard to great effect in its stirring marches, sonorous hymn playing, contest pieces and arrangements of popular and show music, while the orchestra with its dazzling array of many instrumental colours, its flexible instrumentation and its potential for pushing musical boundaries, represents an ‘open’ musical system. I wanted also to exploit the virtuosic capacity of the brass band as a concerto soloist and to celebrate through this work the unity and solidarity amongst brass musicians.

    Europa is a one movement work in five main sections which alternate slow atmospheric music with a fast and rhythmic style. The latter is heard in the many rapid passages which switch from band to orchestra and vice versa. Notable also is the relationship between the band and the orchestra particularly in the cadenzas for the brass band followed by the orchestral brass.

    I was spurred into composing this work after reading about Europa, one of the large moons of the planet Jupiter first seen by Galileo in 1610 and named after a goddess of Greek mythology. Such thoughts were instrumental in generating my first musical ideas, for instance the name ‘Europa’ is represented by a six note melody heard throughout the work. However, my initial thoughts about Europa receded as I explored and developed the musical material. ‘Europa’ was commissioned by the Auckland Philharmonia. The work was first performed by the Dalewool Auckland Brass and the Auckland Philharmonia conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya on 13 June 2002 in the Auckland Town Hall.

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David Hamilton  

Leukos

Duration: 25' 00" Year: 2000
for orchestra

Score Sample
  • Instrumentation
    3223; 4231; timpani 3 perc. ( glockenspiel,suspended cymbal,sleigh bells, snare drum, tam tam, xylophone, tubular bells, bass drum, 4 wood blocks triangle, tambourine, mark tree,vibraphone, claves, clash cymbals, ratchet...); celesta, piano, harp; strings
  • Programme Note

    The marking, in July 1999, of the 30th anniversary of the first moon landing finally provided a focus for my thoughts about this piece. Although each movement has a programmatic title they are intended only in a very general sense and exist mainly as a starting point for my own conception of the musical material. The idea of ‘light’ became a unifying idea in the music.

    The derivation of the name ‘Moon’ relates to words involving time or measurement, and lead directly to the English ‘month’. The root of the word is ‘me-‘ and can be found in several other languages: Greek mene, Latin mensis and German mond. The “Dictionary of Astronomical Terms” continues:

    “…there is also a ‘lunar’ group, typically represented by words for ‘Moon’ such as Latin luna and French lune (and Russian luna). The root here, now not much more than the initial letter ‘l-‘, is related to ‘light’ and so to Latin lux, ‘light’, Greek leukos, Russian luch and so on. The Moon, therefore, can be regarded as either a ‘measurer’ or an ‘illuminator’.”

    The first movement suggests a bleak, barren and deserted landscape. Musically the most complex movement, the melodic and harmonic material are derived from an 8-note pattern of pitches. The central section resolves into more tonally centered music and uses a special technique whereby the strings play ‘out of phase’ with each other. This movement also sidelines the woodwind completely, allowing the darker colours of the brass to dominate.

    The second movement is a fast and furious scherzo. Picking up from the final chord of the first movement, the movement unfolds in a series of climaxes and cascades of sound. There’s even a passing hint of Holst’s ‘winged messenger”, particularly in the scoring.

    The final movement gradually unfolds in one long crescendo. Here, the harmonic basis is much more tonal although elements of the first movement’s material return at key points. There’s even a touch of ‘Hollywood’ in the final climax to the work!

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Lyell Cresswell  

Of Smoke and Bickering Flame

Duration: 25' 00" Year: 2002
concerto for chamber orchestra

Score Sample
  • Instrumentation
    2 fl, 2 ob+ C.A, 2 cl, 2 bsn; 2 hn, 2 tpt; strings
  • Programme Note

    “And from about him fierce effusion roll’d Of smoke and bickering flame, and sparkles dire” John Milton Paradise Lost Book IV Smoke and bickering (or flashing) flame surround Messiah’s chariot “driving into the midst of his enemies” on the third day of the battle against Satan and his Angels. Unable to resist “they leap down with horror and confusion into the place of punishment prepar’d for them in the Deep: Messiah returns with triumph to his Father”. With consignment to “The Deep”, I imagine Satan’s followers must be faced with many conflicting emotions – even nostalgia for their past condition. “Of Smoke and Bickering Flame” comprises eight short movements. The movements are related to each other in pairs after the following pattern: I and VI, II and V, III and VII, and IV and VIII.

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Peter Scholes (composer)  

Requiem Concerto

Duration: 29' 00" Year: 2007
for violin, voices and chamber orchestra

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  • Programme Note

    The word Requiem comes from the Latin “requies” [rest]. In choosing a text for my piece, I chose not to use the regular texts from the Roman Catholic Liturgy and decided to write my own. The piece is structured in a hybrid form combining both concerto elements with the multiple movement architecture and text setting of the Requiem.

    The violinist is the protagonist whose melodies, rhythms and wide ranging emotions counterpoint the voices whose music is always lyrical and simple. At the time of writing this music I was not conscious of any particular emotion or statement, instead the music evolved and took it’s own path. A new section would begin with a simple idea or “cell” and then expand in all directions until complete.

    There are eight sections – seven with text and the penultimate movement (the longest in the piece and first composed) for violin and orchestra with no voices.

    Requiem Concerto is in memory of my first wife Katherine (Kippy) Harris who was a violinist with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and my son Eliot Scholes.

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John Psathas  

Three Psalms

Duration: 23' 00" Year: 2003
for piano and chamber orchestra

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John Psathas  

View from Olympus

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 2002
double concerto for percussion, piano and orchestra

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  • Instrumentation
    2222;4331; timp; 2 perc. ( triangle, snare drum, mark tree, glockenspiel, tubular bells, marimba,cowbell, vibraphone, cymbals -splash, medium crash, china crash), bass drum, tambourine, 3 high tom toms (different pitches), finger cymbals; harp; strings; solo piano; solo percussion ( vibraphone, marimba, simtak, dulcimer, bass steel drums, wind chimes (2 or 3 sets), bell tree, mark tree, triangle, finger cymbals, drum station (4 octobans, 4 tom toms, 3 paddle drums, cymbals (trash, splash, medium crash, china crash, plus a cluster of smallest-possible splash cymbals), hi-hat)
  • Programme Note

    I The Furies – The Furies were avenging spirits of retributive justice whose task was to punish crimes outside the reach of human justice. Their names were Alecto, Megæra and Tisiphone. This movement contains an adapted transcription of a fragment of improvised playing by one of my favourite Greek violinists, Stathis Koukoularis (It appears as a solo for violin about 2 minutes into the movement).

    II To Yelasto Paithi (The Smiling Child) – This is the closest I’ve come to expressing – in a way not possible with the spoken or written word – the feelings inspired by my precious children, Emanuel and Zoe. In this movement is also caught the summer I spent working on the concerto at my parents’ house just outside the village of Nea Michaniona – a house perched on a cliff which looks down on the Aegean and up to Mount Olympus.

    III Dance of the Mænads – Draped in the skins of fawns, crowned with wreaths of ivy and carrying the thyrsos – a staff wound round with ivy leaves and topped with a pine cone – the Mænads roamed the mountains and woods, seeking to assimilate the potency of the beasts that dwelled there and celebrating their god Dionysos with song, music and dance. The human spirit demands Dionysiac ecstasy; to those who accept it, the experience offers spiritual power. For those who repress the natural force within themselves, or refuse it to others, it is transformed into destruction, both of the innocent and the guilty. When possessed by Dionysos, the Mænads became savage and brutal. They plunged into a frenzied dance, obtaining an intoxicating high and a mystical ecstasy that gave them unknown powers, making them the match of the bravest hero.

    John Psathas, 2001

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