N.Z. Composers Praised

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32215, 6 February 1970, Page 1

N.Z. Composers Praised

The music of two Wel-i lington composers, Douglas Lilburn and David Farquhar, and the playing of the N.Z.B.C. Symphony Orchestra ■have been highly praised by a reviewer in the lead-) ing English music maga-i zine, the “Gramophone.”! The orchestra’s recording of symphonies by the two composers—its first symphonic record and the first recording of New Zealand symphonies I—has 1 —has just gone on sale in England after having enjoyed ) great success in New Zealand and Australia. Recorded in the Welling-

I ton Town Hall by Kiwi Records in August, 1968, under 'the sponsorship of the Australasian Performing Rights (Association, the record fea- : tures Lilburn’s “Aotearoa” ■Overture, written in 1940, his Third Symphony, written in 1961, and Farquhar’s SymI phony. It has been put on sale | in England by the Oryx label, (Whose records are released in New Zealand by Kiwi. A copy of the “Gramophone’s” enthusiastic review was received this week by Mr A. Vercoe, director of Kiwi Records. The reviewer, M.M., praises the orchestra’s "expressive woodwind and firm, alert)

brass,” says the record as a; whole is a great success, and describes the two symphonies 1 as major works which could! well in their own right illti-! minate the horizons of many listeners. After speaking of the in-) fluence of Sibelius on the early Lilburn work, the reviewer goes On to speak of the Third Symphony as “something very different: a taut, concise work which declares an individual view of music, unwilling to be deterred from its course by any considerations of fashion.” At the end of it, he says,; the listener is likely to feel; I invigorated. Dealing with the Farquhar (work, the reviewer says it reflects an expansiveness of style which can, and in places (does, approach grandeur. ' “Both these symphonies are i exceedingly rewarding works. And both of them are very

well played. During the 21 years separating the Lilburn works it was not only the composer who developed; so did his home country. In 1940 it was to wait 20 years before being willing even to play Aotearoa; in 1962 it was ready to play his Third Symphony in concert a year after its composition, and in 1968 it was ready to make a firstclass recording of it. “Readiness implies not only a willingness to listen to a home-born composer; it implies also the availability of an orchestra able to do justice to such a score. This the present N.Z.B.C. Symphony is. without a doubt.”