Praise for the Melba CD
'Through a Glass Darkly'  Smalley -
Through a Glass Darkly
Piano Quintet; Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano; String Quartet No 2. Melba Recordings (2008) MR301112 The Australian String Quartet
Roger Smalley, piano
Darryl Poulsen, horn
Paul Wright, violin Reviews "This disc contains some of the strongest chamber music written in this country (I was going to add in recent years but that seems unnecessary). (...)
"The Trio For Horn (Darryl Poulsen), Violin (Paul Wright) and Piano is probably the most impressive work in this genre since the Trio by Gyorgy Ligeti (...)
"This is subtle, complex music, beautifully played, richly rewarding at first hearing and on many hearings thereafter." Peter McCallum
The Sydney Morning Herald
Read the whole review "The title of this disc is ‘Through a Glass Darkly’, a quote from Corinthians that zooms in on humankind’s clouded perspective. Recontextualisation and deconstruction of pre-extant material is a central idea of Smalley’s thought, and the Piano Quintet (2003) incorporates one of Smalley’s favoured compositional techniques, that of requestioning a musical fragment (...) the first eight bars of Chopin’s Mazurka in F minor, Op. 68 No. 4 crops up in the third movement (scherzo); its chromatic harmonies also form the basis of the final chaconne. The first three movements (Overture, Intermezzo and Scherzo) are all relatively brief; the final chaconne equals their combined duration. The angular, energetically leaping Overture seems restless, while the
Intermezzo continues the feeling of unrest via its fragmentary
gestures. The finale is essentially a suite of character pieces
utilising types used by Chopin. References to Chopin himself vary from
the overt to the semi-concealed. Beauty of sound and of harmony seems
to be a determining factor here, something which heightens the feeling
of reflective Rückblick. "The Horn Trio of 2000-2002, commissioned by the solo horn player on this recording, again reuses older material, but this time the theme comes from another work by Smalley. He takes the harp part from the very end of his Contrabassoon Concerto (...)
Darryl Poulsen is a real virtuoso. He is just as agile in the tricky lower register as he is in the stratosphere, and his slow, legato lines in the labyrinthine ‘Mirror Variations’ show none of the lumpiness easily associated with this instrument. The dramatic gestures of the finale are rendered with gusto... "The recordings of all three pieces (the Quintet and the Trio hail from Perth, the Quartet from Adelaide) are exemplary in terms of clarity and distancing." Colin Clarke
Tempo Magazine (UK)
Read the whole review "a fruitful re-engagement with tonality... three meticulously crafted works... Performances are superb throughout. ***** 5 stars William Yeoman
Limelight Magazine
More reviews are available
on the Melba Recordings website.
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ACO2 tours with
Smalley's work
February 2010. Roger Smalley's piece Footwork (also known as Birthday Tango) is included in Australian Chamber Orchestra's ACO2 Western Australian tour, along with works by Handel, Hindemith, Elgar and Britten. ACO2, led and directed by Helena Rathbone, will tour to seven locations in WA: Albany, Bunbury, Katanning, Manjimup, Margaret River, Mount Helena and Narrogin.
Lament (2005) now
available as pdf score and mp3
February 2009. A score of Roger Smalley's 2005 work Lament for the victims of natural disasters can now be downloaded for free from this website (pdf score, 79KB). Listen to an extract (mp3 1.44MB) of this work, premiered
in a fundraising concert for child victims of the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. Performed here by Daryl Poulsen, horn, and Roger Smalley, percussion. Morceau de concours
available for download  July 2008.
Download the sheet music
(pdf file 883 KB) for Smalley's
Morceau de concours,
commissioned by the 2008
Sydney International
Piano Competition.
Morceau de concours is one of two Australian works that will be played by contestants in the Quarter Finals stage of the competition at Sydney’s Seymour Centre on 21st and 22nd July. (Free download for a limited period of time.)
Roger Smalley's
Birthday Tango
receives
a
Classical Music Award
 September 2007. Roger Smalley's piece Birthday Tango (retitled Footwork) has received the 2007 Classical Music Award in the category 'Best composition by an Australian composer'.
The work prompted a judge to comment that 'perhaps if Bartok had written a tango, it would have sounded like this'. Birthday Tango was commissioned by Barbara Blackman to celebrate the Australian Chamber Orchestra's 30th birthday. Roger Smalley performed at the awards ceremony in Sydney on 12th September, playing his own Three Studies in Black and White.
The Classical Music Awards are presented annually by APRA and the Australian Music Centre. More information: APRA website and the AMC website.
(Click photo for a larger view.)
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Selected performances in 2008 Thu 31 Jan – Newcastle City Hall, Newcastle
Sat 2 Feb - Canberra Theatre, Canberra
Sun 3 Feb – The Arts Centre, Melbourne
Mon 4 Feb – The Arts Centre, Melbourne
Tue 5 Feb – Adelaide Town hall, Adelaide
Wed 6 Feb – Perth Concert hall, Perth
Sat 9 Feb – City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney
Sun 10 Feb – Sydney Opera House, Sydney
Mon 11 Feb – QPAC Concert hall, Brisbane
Tues 12 Feb – City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney
Wed 13 Feb - City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney
Thurs 14 Feb- Anita’s Theatre, Wollongong
Strung Out (1987-88)
Australian Chamber Orchestra in its first Australia wide tour of 2008.
Broadcast live by ABC Classic FM 4 April
Piano Quintet (2003)
Grainger Quartet, Gabriella Smart (piano)
Opening Gala Concert, Adelaide Contemporary Music Festival 16 April
Suite for 2 Violins (2007)
FP Aurora Festival Western Sydney, James Cuddeford and Natsuko Yoshimoto.
Broadcast live ABC Classic FM.
Featured Coriole Festival (South Australia) and Japan Tue 15 April - Union Hall, Maribor
Wed 16 April – Gallus Hall, Kankarjev DOM, Ljubljana
Sun 20 April – Grosser Saal, Musicverein Wein, Vienna
April 21 April – Wigmore Hall, London
Wed 23 April – Grand Hall, Glasgow City Halls, Glasgow
Strung Out (1987-88)
Australian Chamber Orchestra 2008 Festival Tour 16 May
Piano Quintet (2003)
Grainger Quartet, Roger Smalley (piano)
National Library of Australia, Canberra International Chamber Music festival 21 and 22 July
Morceau de Concours (2008)
Sydney International Piano Competition 18 October
Divertimento for flute and string trio (2008)
Australia Ensemble resident at the University of New South Wales
Sir John Clancy Auditorium UNSW 9 November
Toccata for instrumental sextet (2008)
Fellows of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre, Penrith 16 November
Toccata for instrumental sextet (2008)
Fellows of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Wyvern Music Club, Forestville 23 November
Toccata for instrumental sextet (2008)
Fellows of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
- Verbruggen Hall Sydney Conservatorium of Music, The University of Sydney
Recorded for broadcast by ABC Classic FM.
Selected performances in 2007 August 31
Piano Concerto No 2
The Queensland Orchestra, John Chen (piano), David Stanhope (conductor)
The Queensland Orchestra Studios, Brisbane, Australia October 20
Trio, Echo IV, Poles Apart, Ceremony II
The Sonic Art Ensemble
Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Sydney, Australia |
