1. Space Junk

Music of Space and Time

Congratulations. That was a wonderful broadcast.  I listened intently. Your playing/performance came over as so expressive  –  at times powerful, at times thoughtful, at times poetic  –  the full gamut.

Quite a coup to have the CD featured so soon after it has been released. Ann Carr-Boyd

A new recording of music that transports the listener to other worlds. Imagine astral bodies in many different forms, colours and shapes.  Travel back in time to remember the joy, play and innocence of childhood with the two Percy suites, and hear the story of the amazing Royal Flying Doctor Service, now over 90 years old, told in music. An ancient Chinese travelling band and the art of knitting Japanese-style are in there as well.

Music by Ann Carr-Boyd and Diana Blom

Performers: Diana Weston (piano, harpsichord), Mary Sambell (piano, percussion), Joanne Arnott (recorder), Angus Ryan (cello)

Available from:

Wirripang

or diana.thoroughbass@gmail.com

Space Junk is available as digital download from:

Spotify

Amazon Music

Tidal

Gobuz

Available at:

Wirripang

As digital download at:

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Discogs

Apple

Anthony Gilbert (British composer) says:

‘I’ve now had a chance to listen to both discs, and have to say I enjoyed every minute! All this freshness, variety within a mysterious consistency of approach, the energy, the colours, all give me a big buzz. And the playing is superb. I particularly like Diana Weston’s technique and sense of rhythm in all the styles, and what mystifies me is the dynamic range of the harpsichord – one can even hear crescendos! And Danielle Grant’s interpretations – especially her French, which is so much better…. (I claim to be a specialist in that language!).’

This double CD includes an eclectic mix of works by Ann Carr-Boyd composed for the most part during the 1970s. Stylistically varied, the recording contains 2 collections of folksongs, artsongs, solos and chamber music for harpsichord, violin, cello, voice and recorders, often with room for percussion. Two new compositions are also featured – ‘Flying West’ and ‘Wisp of Cloud’. ‘Flying West’ was composed for Thoroughbass and is based on a day in the life of a doctor working for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Review of Fandango Returns (2019) including Flying West Loudmouth reporter Mandy Stepanakis says:

‘Joanne Arnott on recorder, Angus Ryan playing cello and harpsichordist Diana Weston perform superbly on Flying West, a series of short pieces composed in 2014. The pieces work their way from the baroque sound so indicative of this instrument combination in the opening piece to more adventurous offerings, Wings From the Sky, being particularly evocative and requiring technically acute precision.’

Flying West double CD is available from Wirripang for $30 plus postage, and as Digital Download from Naxos USA.

For concert reviews see

Paul Nolan, Sydney Arts Guide: ‘The multi-faceted ‘Flying West’ project contributes significantly to the preservation of Australian composition. All works recorded on the companion CD, including those not able to fit into the one concert, have been typeset by Stephen Bydder from Carlisle Print and Publishing. They have been attractively published as separate performance-ready pieces by Wirripang Pty Ltd, who specialise in publishing Australian music.’

Classikon

Sydney Arts Guide

Available for digital download:

Wirripang

Apple Music

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Review for The Birch Tree: Music based on Folktunes.

The Music Trust

Gwen Bennett•Published November 2, 2016 for The Music Trust

“The most unusual aspect of this CD is the rare sound of Béla Bartók’s piano music played on a harpsichord, sometimes with cello, and surrounded by contemporary Australian compositions.”
From two volumes of Bartók’s collections of Hungarian and Slovakian folksongs entitled For Children, Diana Weston has selected 27 pieces, in two sets. Mostly songs and dances, usually around a minute long, they vary in mood from sombre, poignant or whimsical to lilting, energetic and jolly. The robust sound of the harpsichord suits the music well and Weston plays with verve and skill. The unexpected presence of Angus Ryan’s cello reinforces rhythm in about half of the pieces and also provides some lovely solos to chordal accompaniment from the harpsichord. These little pieces represent much effort on the part of their collector and transcriber…

The opening track on the CD is Mary Mageau’s Variations on Scarborough Fair. The tune is subtly altered yet always recognisable in these lyrical and poetic variations, which are beautifully performed by Joanne Arnott (recorder), Shaun Ng (viola da gamba) and Diana Weston.

Inventiveness and joy imbue Four Children’s Songs by May Howlett. This composer easily enters into a child’s fantasy world – she wrote both words and music to a descriptive quartet of pieces entitled “The Littlest Dragon”, “The Cat”, “The Dog” and “Flutter-by, My Butterfly”. Howlett has had a long career in performing, teaching and composing and knows much about how to write for voice. She has given the soprano some vocal challenges, but the masterly Anna Fraser has no trouble with those – her interpretations are great fun, with the occasional roar, purr or woof!

Suite for Diana was commissioned by Diana Weston and composed in 2014 for solo harpsichord by Ann Carr-Boyd. Three movements inspired from different folksong sources are separated by “Interludes” as breaks between the songs, to be inserted, omitted or repeated at the discretion of the performer. “The Wild Colonial Boy” opens the Suite in a brisk, spirited rendition of this Australian/Irish song. The second movement consists of two contrasting Latvian folksongs. Carr-Boyd introduces the tunes then takes us on a delightful imaginative journey of an improvisatory nature, with scalic passages, trills and flourishes of diverse types, before the recapitulation. The third movement is based on a traditional Arabic song called “Gulumkan”. Over a repetitive bass line, Carr-Boyd provides some interesting writing for the right hand, with more trills and flourishes which ally aurally to earlier sounds. A concluding “Interlude” acts as a coda. This Suite is an excellent addition to the body of Australian music written for solo harpsichord.

The final track gives its name to the CD – The Birch Tree by Elena Kats-Chernin, written in 2014 for cello and harpsichord and recorded here for the first time. It is based on a famous Russian folk song: “In the fields stood the birch tree, it was curly . . .” Kats-Chernin comments: “I had very, very curly hair as a child and I felt like that birch tree . . .” This concept ties straight back, in a most satisfying way, to the imagery of Howlett’s Children’s Songs. The repetitive nature of the piece is mesmeric and quite evocative – I had a vision of a group of Russian women in long skirts and headdresses performing a round dance, although a few modern jazzy bits creep in from time to time.

Diana Weston is founder and director of Thoroughbass, a group dedicated to presenting innovative programs of early and contemporary music, as this CD amply demonstrates. She should be commended especially for commissioning new Australian music. The recording was made in Studio 301, Sydney by engineer Ross A’Hern and Diana Weston.

Wirripang continues on its exemplary path of support for such projects.