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MUSICA VIVA FEATURED COMPOSER, 2010

Paul Stanhope is Musica Viva Australia's featured composer in 2010. Four of his works will be showcased in nationwide performances of some of the world's finest chamber musicians.

The Pavel Haas Quartet will perform the world premiere performances of String Quartet no 2 (2009), commissioned for Musica Viva by Kim Williams AM.

Deserts of Exiles (2007), which reflects upon the experience of displacement and banishment and juxtaposes texts from the Lamentations of Jeremiah and a contemporary Arab poet, will be performed by The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge.

Alina Ibragimova & Cédric Tiberghien will give the world premiere performance of a duo work (2010) commissioned for Musica Viva by Geoff & Vicki Ainsworth and Carl Vine.

The Piano Trio Dolcissimo Uscignolo (2007) will be performed by the Atos Trio. This work, commissioned for Musica Viva by Geoff & Vicki Ainsworth, explores the notion of song within the context of an instrumental work through the conduit of a madrigal.

Pavel Haas Quartet

Vale of Glamorgan Festival, 2009

Paul has recently returned from Wales where he was a featured composer in the 2009 Vale of Glamorgan Festival (6th-12th September), which is based in and around the city of Cardiff in South Wales. Four of his pieces received their UK premieres by a diverse series of performers including the Solstice String Quartet, Sinfonia Cymru and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and harpist Eleanor Turner. Read Paul's article on the festival from the AMC website.

Eleanor Turner - harpist

EXILE LAMENTATIONS

The first performance of this major new choral work was premiered by the wonderful
Elysian Singers of London who performed it as part of the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music at St Pancras Church, London on 16 May.
The wonderful
Melbourne Symphony Chorus conducted by Jonathan Grieves-Smith will give the Australian premiere on Sunday 26 July at the Melbourne Recital Centre.



The Elysian Singers of London


UPCOMING PERFORMANCES

Lament from Exile Lamentations
Sydney Chamber Choir cond. Paul Stanhope
Sunday 11 October 2009, 3pm
Church of St Francis of Asisi
Oxford St, Paddinton, Sydney

New CD in the Pipeline

A new CD is in the pipeline of Paul's vocal works. Recent recording sessions included Sea Chronicles for soprano and string quartet performed by Jane Sheldon and the ironwood Ensemble, as well as the Three Geography Songs recorded by Sydney Chamber Choir. The CD is due for release in 2009.

Jane Sheldon, with the Ironwood Ensemble: in the studio

New Book on Australian Music

"This book offers an approachable and evocative introduction to classical music composed in Australia in recent decades. With a balance of historical background and detailed description, composer and music journalist Gordon Kerry explores a number of themes - landscape and spirituality, the influence of Europe and Asia - that bring together the exciting variety of new works and voices working in Australian music now.' It is published by UNSW Press and has an accompanying CD including a movement of Paul's Songs for the Shadowland. It includes an excellent analysis of Paul's Fantasia on a Theme by Vaughan Williams.


NEWS ARCHIVE: 2004-2008

Great piece, terrible title

Paul's ensemble piece "Throbbing" has been given the, er, dubious honour of "Great Piece Terrible Title" by Chicago-based ensemble Eighth Blackbird (pictured).

Tim Munro, the group's (Aussie!) flautist writes:

We played the piece (Throbbing) recently in western Virginia at the Garth Newell Music Festival, and on the plane over, while Matt was cueing his part to the piece, a clearly amused female flight attendant said,
'Oh, I bet that song has obscene words.'
This amusing anecdote was obviously passed to a higher authority, because, as Matt left the plane, the pilot gave him a wink and said, 'Good luck with that Throbbing number.'


Piano Trio Reviews

The new Piano Trio Dolcissimo Uscignolo has recently received its premiere performances by the Kungsbacka Piano Trio as a part of Musica Viva's subsciption series. The piece was toured nationally in ten performances.

Paul Hopwood from The Australian wrote about the new piece:

"Paul Stanhope's piano trio, Dolcissimo Usignolo, which received its world premiere, is an engaging and delightful work.
"It is woven around material from Monteverdi's madrigal of the same name. Particularly intriguing is the interplay of compositional voices: the 21st-century composer recalling the luminous style of the 17th-century Monteverdi, in turn filtered through the 19th-century timbre of the piano trio.
"Stanhope's musical language flows naturally between lyricism and wit, gentle tonality and acerbic dissonance. And he is not afraid to be sentimental. His writing is technically assured, particularly in the faster passages, and the work flows logically without artifice or strain. It was beautifully performed." (The Australian, August 16 2007)

Meanwhile Peter McCallum from the Sydney Morning Herald notes:

"Paul Stanhope's piano trio Dolcissimo Usignolo is built around a vocal madrigal by Monteverdi in which the proverbial forlorn lover expresses envy of the nightingale for its wings and its capacity to attract members of the opposite sex.
"Bits of the madrigal rethought for instruments, waft in and out of the trio just as thoughts of the nightingale drift though the original madrigal, and at times the vigorous, non-madrigal parts of the trio seem to take flight with fervid arpeggios and what sounds like a slightly tongue-in-cheek sense of exaggeration, abandon and extravagance.
"The piece reminded me of another work of Stanhope's which makes an affectionate and possibly envious reference to the past, his Fantasia on a Theme by Vaughan Williams. In Dolcissimo Usignolo, the much-envied nightingale and the madrigal could be taken as symbols of a past where people sang without the postmodern uncertainty of not knowing whether they are being serious or ironic. Like much of Stanhope's work, this abounded in well-crafted textures."


Tasmanian Symphony Premiere

On Saturday 14 July 2007 the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra premiered Paul's newly commissioned work Cloudforms in the Federation Concert Hall in Hobart. Musicologist, Robert Gibson writes of this work written for small orchestral forces:

"The piece uses interesting sonorities to create subtle impressions of clouds forming and separating across the sky . . . it's almost trancelike and meditative."

Peter Donnelly from the Hobart Mercury in his review of the premiere performance writes:

"With cool, crystalline textures, harp glissandos and delicate percussion effects, it is an immediately attractive, impressionistic work." (Hobart Mercury, 16 July 2007, p.10)


Recording of Sea Chronicles released

Brisbane-based ensemble, Collusion, have released their first CD on the Move label. It features the first commercial recording of Sea Chronicles for soprano and string quartet.


Fantasia
performance by the Australian Youth Orchestra in January 2007

Paul's Takemitsu-prize piece, Fantasia on a Theme by Vaughan Williams was performed by at the Australian Youth Orchestra's National Music Camp. It was performed by the Alexander Orchestra conducted by Richard Gill at Elder Hall in Adelaide. The students of the orchestra tackeld the many and varied technical challenges of the piece with great finesse!

The piece has also had recent performances by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (July 2005) and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (May 2006). Martin Ball from The Australian writes:

"Stanhope's piece makes obvious gestures to Ralph Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis. and also revolves around a hymn, in this case Come Down, O Love Divine. Stanhope told the packed audience at the Malthouse that he wrote the work at the time of the US-led invasion of Iraq, when he felt a need for a higher, divine force, to rise above human folly.

"Fantasia begins in a blaze of colour with a series of fanfares as the familiar theme is given a cubist treatment across various sections of the orchestra. Some terrific writing for trombone is followed by lush string arrangesmsnt that, teasingly, almost satisfy our sentimental longing for the whole tune intact. The fourth movement makes an enexpected and surreal shift into 1940s swing before reprising the ealier fanfares. It's a satisfying work and deserves more perforrnances in mainstream orchestral programs." The Australian 9 May 2006.

Machinations - Melbourne Symphony Premiere in November 2006

Paul's new orchestral piece Machinations was premiered by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra on 24 November 2006 as part of the Melbourne Proms Series held in the Town Hall. This specially commissioned piece is inspired by the backroom brawls, number-cruhcning and arm-twisting of modern day political parties, and was conducted by the MSO's chief conductor Oleg Caetani. The piece also received a live national broadcast on ABC Classic FM.

Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Music

Paul Stanhope composed music featured in the opening ceremony of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games. His music accompanied the Boy on the Bay segment, featuring Leunig's duck, and a band of floating koalas! A new concert version of the piece will be performed at Festival 500 in Newfoundland, Canada, in June with a massed international youth choir.

With a bit of luck, a duck will come into your life!

Also featuring Leunig's Duck...

Paul's Leunig settings have become a real favourite with ABC Classic-FM listeners. Songs of Innocence and Joy which are charming, cartoon-like works for treble voices and chamber orchestra have been released on a new CD by the wonderful Gondwana Voices out on ABC Classics. And yes, Leunig's duck makes an appearance!

This CD was recently reviewed in Opera-Opera magazine by David Gyger:

"Within the first few seconds, Gondwana Voices' latest CD signals its intention of lightening the listener's heart as well as its credentials for doing so. . . .

"The most substantial segment of the disc is devoted to Paul Stanhope's Songs of Innocence and Joy–three interestingly contrasted pieces . . . using texts by Michael Leunig. The first, The Missile, is a mellifluous anti-war statement in 2 1/2 minutes; the second, A Little Duck, refers to the waddling duck of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf as it suggests a duck may guide the impressionable child in the direction of wisdom; the third, At the Top, focusses on the extreme contrast of the images of the saddest man of all perched at the top of the tallest building in the world, and the happiest angel of all wallowing in the blackest imaginable mud far below.

"There are of course hints of profound insights here and there, but the cumulative effect of this hour in the company of Gondwana is [a] celebration of the innocence, imagination and enthusiasm of childhood.

"Highly recommended listening when you're down in the dumps, bored, worried, disillusioned or just plain morose." Opera-Opera May 2006.


Ockham's Razor

A recording of Paul's Saxophone Quartet Ockham's Razor has recently been released by Continuum Sax on their CD "Icon" which is available through Reed Music which also publishes the work.

Paul Stanhope wins Toru Takemitsu Composition Prize (2004)


PRESS RELEASE:


On Sunday evening (30 May 2004) Australian composer, Paul Stanhope won first prize in the prestigious Toru Takemitsu Composition Award in Tokyo, Japan.
 
The winner was announced after a concert in which the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra performed works by each of the five finalists. Stanhope’s piece Fantasia on a Theme by Vaughan Williams was awarded the top honour, and a prize of more than $15,000 (1.2 million yen).
 
The Toru Takemitsu Composition Award is one of the most prestigious international awards for composition. Awarded annually since 1997, it is designed to encourage the younger generation of composers whose work promises to shape the music of tomorrow.
 

Stanhope’s creative abilities are gaining recognition both in Australia and internationally. His works have been performed by leading ensembles including the Australian String Quartet, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, The Song Company and the Southern Cross Soloists.

The judge for this years' Toru Takemitsu Award was Magnus Lindberg, one of Europe's most eminent composers, whose works are programmed by leading conductors, performing organisations and festivals, around the world. Lindberg screened the competition’s129 entries in November 2003, selecting 5 works to be performed in the finals concert last Sunday.
 
The competition is unique in that each year only one judge is responsible for the outcome. György Ligeti, Luciano Berio and Louis Andriessen are among the esteemed composers who have been selected to judge this award.


ABC CLASSIC FM gets into Le Tombeau de Hendrix.


ABC Classic FM have gotten with the times with the new design on their Toyota Tarago.

Rather than going for a piece by some dead composer, they chose an excerpt from Paul Stanhope's violin solo Le Tombeau de Hendrix!

 

for more information, email the composer