Michael Kieran Harvey Collection
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Michael Kieran Harvey Collection Australian virtuoso piano music siva Michael Kieran Harvey plays Australian masterworks for piano of the last fifty years Raymond Hanson (1913-1976) Piano Sonata Op. 12 – written 1938-1940, revised 1963 1 Allegro moderato 7’08” 2 Andante espressivo 5’15” 3 Allegretto - Meno mosso - Allegro maestoso 5’28” Recorded at Move Records studio, Gordon Kerry (born 1961) 8, 9 11 December 2014 by Vaughan McAlley Piano Sonata –1997 and Blake Stickland. in three movements Editing by Vaughan McAlley. 4 first movement 7’58” 5 second movement 6’23” Quicksand was recorded live in concert 6 third movement 2’31” 21 August 2009 7 Brendan Colbert (born 1956) Gordon Kerry’s Piano Sonata was recorded Quicksand – 2005 – for piano 9’35” live in concert on 6 June 2008 First performance by Michael Kieran Harvey at the Iwaki Auditorium, Melbourne on 21 August 2009 Mastering by Martin Wright 8 Helen Gifford (born 1935) Cover painting: Neil Maizels: “Dante Down Siva – 2012 – for piano 7’01” Under” (mixed media on paper) (2015) dedicated to Michael Kieran Harvey First performance by Michael Kieran Harvey at the 2012 Peggy Glanville-Hicks P 2015 Move Records address, BMW Edge, Federation Square, Melbourne on 2 November 2012 … for more information about other recordings by Michael Kieran Harvey, go to 9 Neil Kelly (born 1962) move.com.au Untitled (Moths) – 2014 13’12” dedicated to Michael Kieran Harvey First performance by Michael Kieran Harvey at MonaFoma, Hobart, 16 January 2014 his CD juxtaposes numerous Raymond Hanson Gordon Kerry currents and shockwaves Piano Sonata (1938-1963) Piano Sonata (1997) Temanating from Europe that have in three movements in three movements played out in Australian composition over dedicated to Anne Spillane the last sixty years or so. The search for “In 1997, I was commissioned by Ian a grand unifying structure seems to link Raymond Hanson was born in Sydney Munro to write a substantial piece for all of these works, which are nevertheless and began composing at the age of eight. piano and I felt that by then I was ready diverse in compositional approach. All He was largely self-taught and admired for a Sonata. Until then my piano works the works refer to a specific device or the techniques of Hindemith, especially had tended to have some programmatic or code that is reinterpreted and developed his idea of Gebrauchmusik. Hanson poetic element, but a Sonata would make from an Australian perspective. The two taught composition for many years at the a slender claim to be considered alongside sonatas take devices from contemporary Sydney Conservatorium where he was an other works of that genre – which European and American composition influential mentor to Barry Conyngham, composers, like Beethoven for one, used to as initial paradigmatic templates for Don Burrows and Larry Sitsky amongst push the conventional shape as far as they development within the structural trope others. He composed more than 100 works, could. Strangely enough though, when of the three-movement piano sonata. but his works were largely neglected another prominent Australian pianist heard Siva and Moths take mythical and fantasy during his lifetime, being considered too this piece he was blown away by what he themes to generate episodic structures avant-garde in the 1940s and 1950s, and heard as a spiritual element. that question traditional compositional too old-fashioned in the 1960s. The Piano “The harmony is based on a series of development, while Quicksand is an Sonata was written for his friend and great chords and modes that each have a strong exploration of the psychological state of champion Igor Hmelnitsky. It was begun at ‘flavour’ as the result of a restricted set of contemporary alienation and bewilderment a time when Hanson was deeply distressed intervals – for instance a chord with lots of transferred to a constantly-shifting and by the devastation of World War II, but semitones will be more dissonant than one claustrophobic sound-world of rotating remained unfinished until the early 1960s, with lots of thirds or fourths, even if the pitches. A binding thematic link is that all receiving its first performance in 1970. It chord contains more than the three or four the works appropriate recognisable styles was published on the day of his death in pitches found in traditional harmony. But as a departure point for highly individual 1976. The sonata is now widely considered what I was really experimenting with here and exciting re-imaginings of these styles, a masterpiece of mid-century Australian was manipulating the flow of time through making for an exuberant kaleidoscope of composition, internalizing in a unique style rhythm and metre. One of the great piano sonic environments, despite the limitations the characteristics of Hindemith, Britten, sonatas of the 20th century is that of the of the acoustic piano. I am very grateful Shostakovitch, Rachmaninoff, Skryabin, late Elliott Carter, which is notable for the to Martin Wright and Dr Arjun von Sibelius, Bartok and Rabindranath Tagore. sophisticated use of tempo modulation, a Caemmerer for their encouragement and technique with which I experiment here. support in the production of this CD. Very simply, one establishes a pulse, and Michael Kieran Harvey (June 2015) then adds a cross rhythm, but accents the cross rhythm so that it becomes the new pulse: 3 against 2, for instance gives a simple mathematical ratio between speeds. studied at the University of Melbourne with have also given premieres of his works, This has two main effects: it makes the Barry Conyngham. His book New Classical with numerous performances throughout metre of the music very fluid, and avoids Music: Composing Australia was published Australia, Europe and the USA. any sense of a regular downbeat. It also by UNSW Press in 2009. sends the pianist crazy. “The piece is in three movements. The first moves frequently between passages Brendan Colbert Helen Gifford of different speed and metre; the second Quicksand (2005) for piano Siva (2012) begins with a kind of passacaglia – where dedicated to Michael Kieran the repeated bass line serves to support “...Quicksand years that whirl me I know Harvey variations above it; the final movement is not whither...” again more rhapsodic finally ‘freezing’ in a from Leaves of Grass by Helen Gifford quotes the following passage series of detached chords.” Walt Whitman (1819-1892). from “Indian Sculpture: Masterpieces of Gordon Kerry © 2009 “… I’m torn between the light and dark Indian, Khmer and Cham Art” by M.M. Where others see their targets Deneck, Spring Books, London 1962: Gordon Kerry lives on a hill in north- Divine symmetry...” “Siva is known for his fearsome eastern Victoria, Australia. Recent projects character. He is the destroyer, although include a song-cycle to poetry of Jean “...I’m sinking in the quicksand of my he does not confine his manifestations to Cocteau; an opera, Snow White and other thought, this terrifying aspect. His famous dance Grimm Tales with poet John Kinsella for and I ain’t got the power anymore...” can destroy the world, but at the same Opera Scholars Australia; a violin concerto, from Quicksand by David Bowie time recreates it, and the virile, creative and new works for the Melbourne aspect of Siva is represented in his symbol Brendan Colbert (born Ballarat, 1956) Chamber Orchestra with ANAM students, the linga. Siva is also worshipped as the worked as keyboard player and songwriter Plexus, Halcyon and Syzygy. Other recent god of wisdom, the sciences and the arts. with progressive-rock bands before pieces include a piano quintet Aroona Hinduism acknowledges the supremacy pursuing private composition studies in the Dawning, for the 2013 Huntington Estate of the three great gods - Brahma, Vishnu mid-1980s with Brenton Broadstock and Festival, the opera Midnight Son (with and Siva, the triad known as the Trimurti Riccardo Formosa. Louis Nowra) for Victorian Opera in 2012; - over its whole pantheon of gods. His output is substantial. Major a string quintet for Musica Viva Australia Dravidian art of the Chola period (10th commissions include Sphinx (for 10 with whom he was Featured Composer and 11th centuries) is famed for the grace players: for the ELISION Ensemble), in 2012; several works composed while and supple movement in stone carving, Like a Maelstrom (double concerto for holding the Ian Potter Established and above all in bronzes made by the piano and trumpet: for Arcko Symphonic Composer Fellowship between 2009-2011, cirri perdue (melted wax) method, which Ensemble), Eirenicon (for the West including a symphony for the Sydney resulted in some of the most outstanding Australian Symphony Orchestra) and Symphony Orchestra and a flute concerto, examples of Indian sculpture, perhaps the Shades of Futures Past (flute concerto: for Captain Flinders’ Musick, for the Scottish most renowned of these being the figures US soloist Linda Wetherill). Many other Chamber Orchestra and Alison Mitchell. He of Siva dancing, which have a perfect first-rate orchestras, ensembles and soloists balance, while giving complete expression moths. However the text is also a cipher, 2014 Apra Awards. to the rhythm of the creative dance of the correlating works by seminal American Kelly was lecturer in composition and god.” artist Robert Smithson with the work contemporary music theory at Latrobe Siva’s first performance was by Michael of Slave Pianos. University in 1990-2000. His research Kieran Harvey at the 2012 Peggy Glanville- Untitled (Moths) takes its form from included a cross-disciplinary study of the Hicks address, BMW Edge, Federation Smithson’s drawing of the same name and music of Alban Berg and fin-de-siècle Square, Melbourne on 2 November 2012. also draws on a range of European art- Vienna.