Three Pieces

About

Edwin Carr’s Three Pieces for solo bassoon were written in 1999 for a recital given by Ben Hoadley at the French Library and Cultural Center in Boston, USA.

With the recital intended as an all French programme, the cosmopolitan Carr noted that in addition to his firmly ingrained New Zealand-ness, France was another sort of spiritual and musical homeland to him. Indeed, Carr was greatly influenced by the French tradition, particularly Faure and Debussy, whose music he deeply admired.

A subsequent performance of these pieces at St.Martin-in-the-Fields, London, in 2004 led Robert Mathew-Walker to write in Musical Opinion, “The UK premier of Three Pieces for bassoon solo by the New Zealand composer Edwin Car, who died last year, followed. Such epigrammatic items as Romanza, Danza and Autumn: Tempo di valse proved surprisingly effective in such a constricting medium, which the composer treated entirely naturally.”

The pieces were also performed by Hoadley at the International Double Reed Society Conference in Melbourne, 2004, and have been recorded for Radio NZ Concert and WGBH Classic FM (Boston).

– Ben Hoadley