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Maria Grenfell  

Maui tikitiki a Taranga

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 1998
concerto for flute and orchestra

  • Instrumentation
    solo flute; 022(bass)2; 2200; perc.; strings
  • Programme Note

    Maui Tikitiki a Taranga (“Maui formed in the topknot of Taranga”) was a demi-god found in the tribal myths of the Māori people of New Zealand.

    Maui, the fifth and youngest child, was born at the edge of the sea. His mother, Taranga, thought he was stillborn, and wrapped him in a tuft of her hair and set him adrift. He was cared for by the seaweed until a breeze blew him ashore, where he was saved and brought up by one of his great-ancestors.

    Maui was a great prankster. In one of his mischievous moods he decided to put out all the fires in the world. To bring fire back, he had to find Mahuika, the goddess of fire. He was awestruck upon meeting her, but decided to play a trick on her by taking fire from her fingernails one at a time, until she realised his game and threw fire to the ground, catching everything alight. Maui changed himself into a hawk to escape the flames, which singed his feathers. He called upon his ancestor to send rain and drench the fire, depriving Mahuika of her powers.

    Maui decided to defeat death by journeying to where the earth meets the sky, where lived his great-ancestress Hine nui te po (“Great Hine the Night”). He was accompanied by many birds, and told them his plan to enter the body of the sleeping Hine and so defeat death. The birds sat quietly trying not to laugh as Maui, in the form of a caterpillar, crawled towards Hine. Suddenly the fantail could be quiet no longer and laughed aloud, dancing about with delight. Hine awoke with a start, realised Maui’s trickery, and he was killed.

  • Availability

Annea Lockwood  

Night and Fog

Duration: 22' 00" Year: 1987
A song cycle for baritone, tape and ensemble

Lyell Cresswell  

Of Smoke and Bickering Flame

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

  • 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.

  • Availability

John Wells  

Organ Concerto

Duration: 23' 00" Year: 1996
for orchestra and organ

Ross Carey  

Pastiche Sonata

Duration: 22' 00" Year: 1991
for solo piano

John Psathas  

Percussion Concerto

Duration: 23' 00"
for four percussion soloists and symphony orchestra

Anthony Ritchie  

Piano Concerto

Duration: 29' 00" Year: 1982
for piano and full orchestra

  • Instrumentation
    2222;4331;timp (4) , 5perc (on bs-dr, sd-dr,bongos,tamb,hand cym, 2sus cym,h-hat,gong,tri,cast,w-block, xylo,vibra);strs
  • Programme Note

    This work features virtuosic writing for the soloist along with a colourful orchestral part. In four movements, it explores a wide range of moods and styles. It was composed as part of Ritchie’s honours portfolio at Canterbury University, and lasts 30 minutes. The second and third movements were performed in 1984 by Sharon Joy Vogan and the NZSO, and recorded for radio.

  • Availability

Kenneth Young  

Piano Concerto

Duration: 25' 00" Year: 2004
for piano and orchestra

Edwin Carr  

Piano Concerto No. 2

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 1986
concerto for piano and orchestra

Gillian Whitehead  

Piano Trio

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 2005

  • Programme Note

    One winter morning, a short walk from the marae at Waihi, on the southern shore of Lake Taupo, I stood on the shore to watch the sun rise. Behind me, a waterfall lead to a small stream that flowed into the lake, imposing its own patterns on those of the lake. The water was uniformly grey, but as the sun rose, for a moment the tops of the ripples were golden, with darker valleys between, before the whole area was flooded with light. So the ideas behind this trio have to do with the changing perspectives of patterns in water – in the bubbling of streams, the tumble of a waterfall, in the spiralling eddies where stream meets lake at sunrise.

    In the opening movement, a group of short themes and ideas initially form a mosaic-like section, which recurs in developed and varied forms around more reflective passages. The second movement reverses the first, in that slow, sustained sections are interrupted by more energetic material, and the final movement draws all the previous ideas together.

  • Availability