Lilburn: Piano Music Vol 4

DOUGLAS LILBURN Complete Piano Music Volume 4

DAN POYNTON

MASSEY U N IVE R SITY TR UST R ECOR DS SE R I ES

DOUGLAS LILBURN Complete Piano Music Volume 4

DAN POYNTON

Leo Bensemann (1912-1986), Morning Takaka, 1977, oil on hessian board, 437 x 609 mm. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu; William A. Sutton bequest, 2000. Reproduced by permission of the estate of the artist.

VOLUME 4 01 PRELUDE (1951)

3:16

FIVE BAGATELLES (1942) * 20:37 02 Allegro 3:42 03 Largo 3:42 04 Allegro con brio 4:44 05 Tranquillo (‘From the Port Hills’) 4:48 06 Allegro 3:41 07-09 ‘THREE PIECES’ (1965) †

4:54

‘CHRISTMAS 1943’ (1943) † 10 Christmas 1812 11 Prelude 1 12 Player’s Music 13 Prelude 2 14 Lady Wood’s Fancie 15 Andante

9:30 2:15 0:35 3:54 0:35 1:04 1:07

16 ANDANTE SOSTENUTO (1964) † 2:48 17 ‘PIECE IN E MAJOR’ (c.1942) †

0:57

18 PRELUDE (1950) †

1:27

‘A CHRISTMAS OFFERING’ (1944) † 21:44 19 Flourish 1:47 20 Prelude 0:47 21 Willow Song 0:59 MASSEY U N IVE R SITY TR UST R ECOR DS SE R I ES

22 Vivace

2:11

23-24 Two Diversions

2:24

25-27 Thoughts During Christmas

Week

13:36

28-30 SONATINA NO.2 (1962)

10:53

TOTAL TIME

76:25

APPENDIX 01 Gamelan for Six Hands (1965) †

2:30

02 Tempo di Bolero (1941) †

2:21

03 Canon for Six Hands (1965) †

1:12

04-06 Canonic Studies (1964-5) †

3:20

07 Homage to J.S. Bach (1965) †

3:25

08 ‘Salute to my loved old August

Förster upright piano’ (1997) †

3:00 15:54

TOTAL TIME * First complete recording † First recording

MMT2068-69 24 bit Digital Stereo Recording  2012 HRL Morrison Music Trust  2012 HRL Morrison Music Trust

DOUGLAS LILBURN

Douglas Lilburn (1915-2001) grew up on ‘Drysdale’, a hill-country farm bordering the mountainous region at the centre of New Zealand’s North Island. He often described his boyhood home as ‘paradise’ and his first major orchestral work, Drysdale Overture (1937), written while a student under the aegis of Ralph Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music in London, conjures up the hills, bush and stream as primal sites of imaginative wonder. Recalling the impression of Drysdale Overture, Lilburn wrote: ‘I’m left with that lovely Mark Twain image of Jim and Huckleberry drifting their barge down that great river, looking up at the stars and wondering “whether they was made, or only just happened.’” Other works inspired by his nostalgia were two student piano sonatas, a cantata entitled Prodigal Country (1939), and the Aotearoa Overture (1940), which has become a New Zealand classic.

Returning to Christchurch, Lilburn banded together with an innovative group of painters, poets and publishers who were to prove influential. Settings of Allen Curnow and Denis Glover, for instance, resulted

in two iconic works: Landfall in Unknown Seas (1942), a voyage of spiritual discovery for narrator and string orchestra, and the song cycle Sings Harry (1953), the musings of a middle-aged bachelor who, returning to the mountains where he grew up, begins to reassess and evaluate the course his life has taken. Two more works, an orchestral tone poem A Song of Islands (1946) and the Chaconne for piano (1946), find their parallel in the regional paintings of Rita Angus.

In 1947 Lilburn joined the staff of Victoria University College in Wellington and completed several works that received high critical acclaim, including two symphonies, two piano sonatas, and the Alistair Campbell song cycle Elegy (1951) – a vision of the titanic indifference of nature.

Lilburn composed the Symphony No.3 (1961), along with Sonatina No.2 (1962) and Nine Short Pieces for Piano (1965-66), in response to a stimulating period of sabbatical leave. Masterpieces of concentrated form, these works explore the boundaries of his instrumental writing. From this point until his retirement, Lilburn chose to take on the new territory of electroacoustic com-

position.

Lilburn’s final years were spent quietly at home in Thorndon, tending his garden and, until the onset of arthritis, playing his beloved August FÜrster piano. He received the Order of New Zealand in 1988.

Complete Piano Music Volume 4 This collection does not generally include juvenilia, trivia, incomplete or rejected pieces/movements. Exceptions are specified in the notes.

VOLUME 4 Prelude (1951) This piece has aptly been described by the pianist Margaret Nielsen as ‘exuding a sort of rhapsodic nostalgia as each phrase struggles to escape from the pedal points that act as secure anchors to different tonal areas.’ A surge of sound in the middle releases the music into a new tonal centre of C sharp major but shifting tonalities ensue until Prelude finally resolves into D major.

Five Bagatelles (1942) Allegro Largo Allegro con brio Tranquillo (‘From the Port Hills’) Allegro The musical structure as one moves through this set progressively reveals a larger unity.

The fourth prelude is known independently as ‘From the Port Hills’, which is a topographical reference to the Christchurch landscape.

‘Three Pieces’ (1965) These pieces reveal the erudition of Lilburn’s serial technique; the last is a marvel of sustained intensity.

‘Christmas 1943’ (1943) This parcel of six pieces gifted to Lawrence Baigent and Leo Bensemann opens with jubilant bells and a quasi-Russian psalm: entitled ‘Christmas 1812’, it seems to be summoning Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow as a hopeful war-time message. The set also includes a transcription of music Lilburn originally composed for the Players’ mime in Ngaio Marsh’s 1943 production of Hamlet and a pseudo-lute piece entitled ‘Lady Wood’s Fancie’, which must have been written as a private joke (a caption under the title reads: ‘Don’t you think Mr—, that the New Zealand scenereh/ has rather a melancholeh beauteh?’).

Andante sostenuto (1964) Lilburn was a solitary observer of natural phenomena, studying in great detail the living forms around him. This piece seems to be based on Lilburn’s observation of the sea.

tian proportions. Entitled ‘Thoughts during Christmas Week 1944’, this last piece is cast as a theme with twenty-four variations and an epilogue: Lilburn’s musings often have a Yule-tide flavour but sometimes express turbulent feelings.

‘Piece in E Major’ (c.1942) This piece has a quasi-oriental flavour, especially noticeable in little pentatonic cascades featuring open fourths and fifths.

Sonatina No.2 (1962) This work, composed for Margaret Nielsen, testifies the depth of Lilburn’s regard for her as an interpreter of his music. The work is cast in three movements of which the third, linked to the second, is an epilogue that recalls earlier material. In private conversation Lilburn often spoke nostalgically of ‘paradise’ as belonging to childhood. He once said to me, ‘growing up in the back country – that was real happiness, a child’s happiness.’ Memories of Edenic joys countered by an acknowledgement of their inevitable passing appear to underlie this sonatina. The bellbird-like idea opening the first movement, for instance, seems tuned to the memory of prelapsarian bliss but the tone of repining that we hear manifest in the epilogue comes from the fact that we are beyond Eden, at a distance of time and space.

Prelude (1950) A hunting-horn motto braced with falserelated concords gives this piece an openair feel.

‘A Christmas Offering’ (1944) This lavish Christmas package for Lawrence Baigent and Leo Bensemann includes a fanfare, four preludes (three of which appear in Occasional Pieces and are not repeated here), a transcription of the ‘Willow Song’ originally composed for Ngaio Marsh’s 1944 production of Othello, a ‘Vivace’ movement (which is also extant under the title ‘Piece for Gwyneth Brown’), two quirky diversions, and a finale of Schuber-

APPENDIX Gamelan for Six Hands (1965) This piece, commissioned by Maisie Kilkelly (a former piano pupil of Lilburn’s in Christchurch) for her students, reveals that Lilburn’s interest in the Javanese gamelan preceded the establishment of a gamelan orchestra at Victoria University in the mid1970s.

Tempo di Bolero (1941) Subtitled ‘Grande étude de concert pour six mains’, this piece came at the end of the 1941 set of Christmas pieces composed for Lawrence Baigent and Leo Bensemann, both of whom were good amateur pianists.

Lilburn and his companions must have found it great fun. Lilburn’s friends Ross Carey and the late David Farquhar join Dan Poynton in this and other items for six hands.

Canon for Six Hands (1965) Written for Maisie Kilkelly and her students, this piece, with Canonic Studies (1964-5) and Homage to J.S. Bach (1965), ‘Canon per augmentationem in motu contrario’, reveals Lilburn’s deft contrapuntal

technique. Lilburn always had a soft spot for Maisie Kilkelly and was happy to respond to her request for a six-handed piece.

She loved teaching children and had such a good rapport with them that their mothers would often come back to take lessons themselves.

‘Salute to my loved old August Förster upright piano’ (1997) This fragment is Lilburn’s last musical utterance and came almost 20 years after he had officially given up composing. He jotted it down with a touching note (found after his death) saying that, although arthritis prevented him from playing it, he had had his piano (which he owned for over half a century and on which most of his piano music had been composed) restored and often found himself lifting the lid to play the triad G-B-E above middle C, the sound of which he found ‘ravishing’ and ‘disturbing’, and which seemed to liberate his ‘frosted imagination’. ‘I might explore, without concern for the initial result,’ writes Lilburn; ‘[it] may be a foolhardy exercise, and I’ll not breathe a word to anyone about it—simply respond if it invites me.’

DAN POYNTON Robert Hoskins

Dan Poynton was born in Wellington, New Zealand. His first major musical recognition came while at school when he won the Composition Prize at the 1983 National Westpac School Music Competition. In 1986 he was a finalist in the TVNZ Young Musicians Competition and the National Christchurch Concerto Competition. In

1988 he was awarded first prize in the National Kerikeri Piano Competition.

After study in New Zealand and postgraduate study in Australia, Poynton spent several years travelling the world. In 1997, he re-established his reputation and career with You Hit Him He Cry Out, a recording of New Zealand piano music which won the Classical Award in the 1998 New Zealand Music Awards.

Poynton is known as a champion of New Zealand piano music and has been in significant demand throughout Australasia, Asia and Europe especially for his solo piano recital programmes as well as for his appearances with the sopranos Deborah Wai Kapohe (New Zealand) and Sylvia Nopper (Germany). He was chosen as the sole representative from New Zealand to perform a concert of music in June 1999 at the Sydney Opera House as part of that year’s International Association of Music Information Centres Conference.

Poynton has performed in the Bangkok New Music Festival, the New Music

New Zealand Festival in Edinburgh, the Sonorities Festival in Ireland and the Ijsbreker Festival in Amsterdam as well as in Malaysia, Germany, Switzerland, India, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Poynton has toured extensively as a solo artist throughout New Zealand, and has been involved in collaborations with other musicians – including Gareth Farr and Mark Menzies – and a number of recording projects. As well as a pianist he is also known as a composer, and his recitals often include his own works.

MMT2054 The Complete Piano Music of Douglas Lilburn, Volume 2 Douglas lilburn Complete Piano Music Volume 3

Dan Poynton

Also available in this series massey u n ive r sity tr ust r eCOr Ds se r i es

MMT2067 The Complete Piano Music of Douglas Lilburn, Volume 3

MMT2053 The Complete Piano Music of Douglas Lilburn, Volume 1 RIANZ New Zealand Music Awards Winner, Best Classical Album (2005)

Complete Piano Music In Print

Lilburn’s piano music is now presented in an eight volume set under the auspices of Series Editor Robert Hoskins and Contributing Editor Rod Biss. Dr. Hoskins is the series editor of a number of musical projects and has published on eighteenthcentury English music and music in New Zealand. As well as being a composer himself, Biss has extensive experience in the publishing industry, having worked for Schott London and later Production Director of Faber Music, and one of the co-founders of Price Milburn Music. Biss is well-known in New Zealand as a discerning reviewer and music journalist for many of the country’s most prominent magazines and newspapers. The complete works will encompass some 26 stand-alone works and sets (the Occasional Pieces for Piano alone comprises some twenty short pieces). The series will also include a ‘best of’ collection and a volume of edited selections for young players. This eight volume set will be published by Promethean Editions.

DOUGLAS LILBURN Piano Music 1

VOLUME 5 Works for String Orchestra

PEL01

Introducing the printed edition

Douglas LilburN Piano Music 2

VOLUME 5 Works for String Orchestra

PEL02

For more information visit www.promethean-editions.com

Leo Bensemann (1912-1986) Leo Bensemann was born in Takaka in the Nelson province of New Zealand. He moved to Christchurch in 1929 with his friend Lawrence Baigent. In 1934 he met Denis Glover who, with John Drew, had established the Caxton Press Club. It was Glover’s enthusiasm for Bensemann’s graphic work which led to the suggestion of a set of drawings for publication; and, as typographer at Caxton Press, he was involved in all technical aspects of book production with Glover. As an illustrator, he produced vivid images with a strong element of fantasy. Bensemann also assisted Charles Brasch with the publication of Landfall from its inception in March 1947 until 1978.

Bensemann painted landscapes throughout his life, drawing upon scenes associated with Canterbury: the expanses of plain, rolling foothills and the distant views of the Alps.

From time to time he also used the rocky outcrops of the Takaka Hills remembered from his childhood. His landscapes are dominated by edge and silhouette, and a sharp light; full of remembered and seen elements, dreamlike stillness and poster-like clarity.

Rita Angus (1908-1970) Rita Angus was born in Hastings and studied at the Canterbury College School of Art from 1927 to 1933. In the 1930s she exhibited at the Canterbury Society of Arts and with ‘The Group’ (ex-students from the Society who set up their own exhibitions), while working as a graphic artist. She painted extensively in Otago, Canterbury, and later in Hawke’s Bay and Wellington. In 1954 she bought a cottage in Thorndon, Wellington where she lived and worked until her death in 1970.

Often described as one of the outstanding artists of her generation, Rita Angus was an independent and often solitary person. She had a strong sense of vocation and was single-minded in her dedication to her art. “I live to paint and paint to live” she is quoted as saying.

Dan Poynton: The Complete Piano Music of Douglas Lilburn, Volume 4 MMT2068-69 Digital Stereo Recording © 2012 HRL Morrison Music Trust  2012 HRL Morrison Music Trust A Massey University Trust Records release Recorded in the Ilott Theatre, Wellington Town Hall, Wellington, New Zealand, 8-10, 14-16 April 2006 Recording Producer Murray Khouri Recording Engineer Keith Warren, Radio NZ Piano Technician Phil Hayward Producer Post Production, Digital Editing and Mastering Wayne Laird Executive Producer Ross Hendy Associate Executive Producer Charles Davenport Research Dan Poynton and Assoc Prof Robert Hoskins Booklet Notes Assoc Prof Robert Hoskins Lilburn Photograph Douglas Lilburn Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, PAColl-2547-01 Poynton Photograph Tim Gummer Art Credits Leo Bensemann (1912-1986), Morning Takaka, 1977, oil on hessian board, 437 x 609 mm. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu; William A. Sutton bequest, 2000. Reproduced by permission of the estate of the artist.

Rita Angus (1908-1970), Autumn, c.1963, oil on canvas on hardboard, 340 x 390mm; Eastern Southland Gallery, image courtesy of Te Papa. Reproduced by permission of the estate of the artist.

Sources Prelude (1951) Waiteata Music Press Five Bagatelles (1942) Waiteata Music Press ‘Three Pieces’ (1965) NZ-Wt MS-Group-0009, fMSPapers-7623-20 ‘Christmas 1943’ (1943) Waiteata Music Press Andante sostenuto (1964) NZ-Wt MS-Group-0009, fMS-Papers-2483-052 ‘Piece in E Major’ (c.1942) NZ-Wt MS-Group-0009, MS-Papers-2483-009 Prelude (1950) Waiteata Music Press ‘A Christmas Offering’ (1944) Waiteata Music Press Sonatina No.2 (1962) Price Milburn Music Gamelan for Six Hands (1965) Waiteata Music Press Tempo di Bolero (1941) Waiteata Music Press Canon for Six Hands (1965) Waiteata Music Press Canonic Studies (1964-5) NZ-Wt MS-Group-0009, MS-Papers-2483-009 Homage to J.S. Bach (1965) Waiteata Music Press ‘Salute to my loved old August Förster upright piano’ (1997) NZ-Wt MS-Group-0009, fMS-Papers-7623-38 The copyrights of Douglas Lilburn’s music are owned by the Alexander Turnbull Library Endowment Trust.

Royalties from Douglas Lilburn’s music are paid to the Lilburn Trust for the fostering and preservation of New Zealand music.

The HRL Morrison Music Trust was established in March 1995 as a charitable trust to support New Zealand musicians of international calibre. All funds received by the Trust are used to make recordings, present concerts – both in New Zealand and overseas – and assist artists to undertake projects to further develop their talents. The Massey University Trust Records series was established by Trust Records and the Massey University College of Creative Arts to promote the work of established New Zealand artists and composers and to further the University’s commitment to excellence in research.

The HRL Morrison Music Trust gratefully acknowledges the support of the following people and organisations in the making of this recording: Cathy Harrington (Leo Bensemann Estate); the Alexander Turnbull Library; the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu; Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hakena, University of Otago, Dunedin; Peter Simpson; Bill Angus (Rita Angus Estate) Te Papa; and the New Zealand School of Music.

For more information about this recording or others by the HRL Morrison Music Trust visit www.trustcds.com

VOLUME 4 01 PRELUDE (1951)

3:16

FIVE BAGATELLES (1942) * 20:37 02 Allegro 3:42 03 Largo 3:42 04 Allegro con brio 4:44 05 Tranquillo (‘From the Port Hills’) 4:48 06 Allegro 3:41 07-09 ‘THREE PIECES’ (1965) †

4:54

‘CHRISTMAS 1943’ (1943) † 10 Christmas 1812 11 Prelude 1 12 Player’s Music 13 Prelude 2 14 Lady Wood’s Fancie 15 Andante

9:30 2:15 0:35 3:54

22 Vivace

2:11

23-24 Two Diversions

2:24

25-27 Thoughts During Christmas

Week

13:36

28-30 SONATINA NO.2 (1962)

10:53

TOTAL TIME

76:25

APPENDIX 01 Gamelan for Six Hands (1965) †

2:30

02 Tempo di Bolero (1941) †

2:21

03 Canon for Six Hands (1965) †

1:12

04-06 Canonic Studies (1964-5) †

3:20

1:04

07 Homage to J.S. Bach (1965) †

3:25

1:07

08 ‘Salute to my loved old August

0:35

16 ANDANTE SOSTENUTO (1964) † 2:48 17 ‘PIECE IN E MAJOR’ (c.1942) †

0:57

18 PRELUDE (1950) †

1:27

‘A CHRISTMAS OFFERING’ (1944) † 21:44 19 Flourish 1:47 20 Prelude 0:47 21 Willow Song 0:59 MASSEY U N IVE R SITY TR UST R ECOR DS SE R I ES

Förster upright piano’ (1997) †

3:00 15:54

TOTAL TIME * First complete recording † First recording

MMT2068-69 24 bit Digital Stereo Recording  2012 HRL Morrison Music Trust  2012 HRL Morrison Music Trust