Zephyr is a good title for this album by a New Zealand quintet of wind instrumentalists: Bridget Douglas (flute), Robert Orr (oboe), Phil Green (clarinet), Ed Allen (horn) and Robert Weeks (bassoon). The works are by five Kiwi composers. Douglas Lilburn’s Wind Quintet (1957) is followed by his wind quartet Grand Canyon Uprun Suite (1961) and his son Anthony Ritchie is represented by his 2009 Wind Quintet Op.14. The disc opens with Gareth Farr’s brief Mad Little Machine (2012) and also presents Ken Wilson’s Wind Quintet (1965) and Christopher Blake’s Sounds — an evocation of Tahuahua, Queen Charlotte Sound (1988). An excellent programme played by talented musicians shows their expertise with their instruments. We do not hear enough wind chamber music: such records are needed.
Verdict: Entertaining local musical talents.
These are not from St Kilda, Dunedin. This St Kilda is an isolated, remote archipelago in Scotland, containing the most western islands of the rugged Outer Hebrides. The disc boasts the local folk music (without vocals) of the far St Kilda, rescued from oblivion in a remarkable way. The last 36 residents of the islands were evacuated nearly a century ago but their tunes were saved on a piano recorded in a care home by an elderly resident who was taught the instrument by a St Kilda resident.
The first eight tracks are these recordings; haunting in a bleak but melodic way. Six arrangements of these melodies by some contemporary Scottish composers follow, adding orchestral harmonies and inspiration to the previously lost tunes.
Verdict: Rescue of unknown music inspires Scots.
- Geoff Adams
