ARIA NUMBER 1 AUSTRALIAN CLASSICAL ALBUM OF 2022!

 

FOREWORD / INTRODUCTION

 

“During the first lockdown of the 2020 I found myself composing random unrequested pieces, organised in a collection called “Isolation Suite”. When Vov contacted me in 2021 about a student playing a piece of mine, we got to chat about what I was writing at the time and I played some of those pieces to him. That started an avalanche of new arrangements for Vov, of these and some other works of mine for Violin, Piano and some other formations, always with Vov’s beautiful Violin playing in mind.

 

Among those pieces are “Distant Mountains”, “Kismet”, “Half-Moon Prelude”, “Kate Waltz" and even “Eliza Aria” in an arrangement for Violin and Cello. After a while we found that there was enough material to record a whole album. Vov has done an incredible job of putting this project together and getting wonderful musicians on board to play with him.”

 

PROGRAM NOTES

The pieces on this album were composed between 2002 (Eliza Aria) and 2021, with the exception of Charleston Noir which was composed in 1996.

 

All arrangements presented in this album were created in 2021, for and in discussions with Vov Dylan. Half-Moon

Prelude was arranged for Victoria Jacono-Gilmovich.

 

TRACK 1: MOON CLOUD WALTZ

Violin: Vov Dylan

Piano: Clemens Leske

Moon Cloud Waltz was part of the Isolation Suite for piano that I composed during the first lockdown in March-April 2020. I wrote a piece a day for about two weeks. It is a light and lyrical work, with undertones of melancholy.

 

TRACK 2: KISMET (FOR TWO VIOLINS AND PIANO)

Violin: Vov Dylan

Violin: Victoria Jacono-Gilmovich

Piano: Clemens Leske

Kismet was commissioned by Shirley Rickard and Helen Swain to celebrate their 30 years of life together and their respective birthdays. The piece is in a rare for me major key, it has an air of quiet optimism and reflection. When the commissioners heard the piece they asked me to arrange it for Violin, Oboe and Piano for their musician friends. When I told Vov about this arrangement he suggested I adapt this one for 2 Violins and Piano.

 

TRACK 3: SASKIA

Violin: Vov Dylan

Piano: Clemens Leske

This piece was commissioned by the Sydney Art Quartet to celebrate the extraordinary Saskia Havekes, the lady behind an incredible iconic Sydney flower shop Grandiflora. It was premiered to launch her stunning perfume Saskia. The piece reflects Saskia/the person’s calmness and earthiness as well as her beauty and the piece also has a section evoking storms and rain in

the middle of the work, representing an element of nature and its effect on the flowers.

 

 

TRACK 4: HALF-MOON PRELUDE (FOR VIOLIN, PIANO AND DOUBLE BASS)

Violin: Victoria Jacono-Gilmovich

Piano: Clemens Leske

Double Bass: Nicole Murray-Prior

This piece was originally commissioned for Piano by the Pianist Alexander Boyd and composed when Victoria’s brother Henry, a

talented double bass player, suddenly passed away, in his teens. I was so saddened by this family’s permission).

 

The piece embedded itself in a dark key of C sharp minor, inside an anguished repeated pattern of the C sharp minor chord, with an almost bluesy melody on top. The title reflects a subtle nod to the famous Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.

 

While arranging Half-Moon Prelude for Victoria I added an “angelic” chorale-like material at the end. I also added an optional Double Bass line in Henry’s memory.

 

 

TRACK 5: BUTTERFLYING (FOR TWO VIOLINS)

Violin: Vov Dylan

Violin: Victoria Jacono-Gilmovich

Butterflying was originally composed for orchestra, for a segment in the Rugby World Cup 2003 Opening Ceremony in Sydney.

 

Subsequently I created a version of it for children’s choir, the text of which depicted a dream in which a child becomes a butterfly that goes on a flight adventure.

 

TRACK 6: CHARLESTON NOIR (FOR SOLO PIANO)

Piano: Clemens Leske

 

At the core of this work for piano solo lies the Charleston rhythm, albeit in a very dissonant form-the material is based on an edgy interval of Major Seventh. Even though an overall tone of this piece is dark and quite harsh, it has some lighter moments.

This piece was a winner of Jean Bogan Memorial Prize 1996.

 

TRACK 7: DISTANT MOUNTAINS

Violin: Vov Dylan

Piano: Clemens Leske

 

Distant Mountains was part of the Isolation Suite, originally for clarinet and piano. The title came to me after the piece was written. With its folk-like melody, it felt like it belonged to the foggy mountains somewhere in Eastern Europe. There is also a light dance quality to the piece.

 

TRACK 8: ELIZA ARIA (FOR VIOLIN AND CELLO)

Violin: Vov Dylan

Cello: Susan Blake

 

This piece was originally written as an entrance music for the Princess Eliza in the ballet Wild Swans (The Australian Ballet, choreographed by Meryl Tankard AO). Eliza was of a kind and courageous character and it was her purity of heart that I aimed to represent with this laconic piece.

 

Arranging Eliza Aria for violin and cello was quite a challenge, I had to strip the piece of all the chordal textures, trying not to lose the rhythmic and motivic essence. This is the least number of lines I have ever arranged this piece for.

 

TRACK 9: KATE WALTZ

Violin: Vov Dylan

Piano: Clemens Leske

 

Kate Waltz was a birthday piece for a friend called Kate, commissioned by her husband. Originally for piano, it also became part of the ballet music Little Green Road to Fairyland. Vov heard it as part of that ballet music on the radio one time and asked if I could arrange it for him.

 

TRACK 10: JOY IN A MINOR KEY

Violin: Vov Dylan

Piano: Clemens Leske

 

Joy in a Minor Key was originally composed for Clarinet and Piano, as a commission from Catherine Hawkins. Initially commissioned in 2018 to mark the 50th birthday of her husband David Windsor and to celebrate his inspirational survival from a random attack in 2017.

 

However, the purpose of the commission had broadened after I played the first draft of ‘Joy’ over the phone to Catherine. Unknowingly, I had written a piece evoking the memory of Catherine’s mother, for whom music brought great joy. And so Catherine and David dedicated ‘Joy’ to the memory of Margaret Anne Hawkins (O’Brien) 13.1.1937- 13.1.2017. "Mother. Music-lover. Much-missed.”

 

While composing "Joy in a Minor Key” I attempted to achieve a fleeting, light, poetic, almost never "touching the ground” quality. The piece is a waltz written in my favourite form of rondo with a coda.

 

 

BONUS TRACKS

 

TRACK 11: HALF-MOON PRELUDE (VERSION FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO)

Composer: Elena Kats-Chernin

Violin: Victoria Jacono-Gilmovich

Piano: Clemens Leske

 

TRACK 12: KISMET (FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO)

Violin: Vov Dylan

Piano: Clemens Leske

 

ELENA KATS-CHERNIN

Elena Kats-Chernin AO is a Sydney based Australian composer. Her music featured at the opening ceremonies of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and the 2003 Rugby World Cup. She has received several awards including Sounds Australian, Helpmann, Limelight and Sydney Theatre Awards as well as the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award 2013.

 

Her music has been performed by all the major Australian orchestras as well as many international ones, including London

Philharmonic Orchestra and Swedish Chamber Orchestra.

 

Elena has written pieces for dance, opera, orchestra and chamber ensembles. Among her most well known pieces are Russian Rag and Eliza Aria from Wild Swans Suite, the latter of which was one of the ten items chosen to be part of The 2019 Sounds of Australia.

 

In 2017 ABC Classics released a 10-CD boxset of her music.

 

CLEMENS LESKE

Clemens Leske has performed with all six Australian symphony orchestras and played at venues in Spain, the UK, Singapore, New Zealand, the US, Hungary and China. He has appeared regularly with the Australian String Quartet and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Moscow Virtuosi and at the Bang on a Can and Focus festivals of new music in New York City. For his London

Royal Festival Hall début he performed Rachmaninoff’s First Concerto with eh London Philharmonic Orchestra. Other recent appearances include performances of Mozart’s “Elvira Madigan” piano concerto, Strauss’ Burlesque, Rachmaninoff’s Third piano concerto and Beethoven’s triple concerto under the baton of Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Sydney Symphony, and a national tour in partnership with legendary flautist Sir James Galway.

 

Four albums of solo piano works ranging from Chopin and Schumann to Debussy and American composer William Duckworth will be released in 2022. For the past four years he has been principal pianist of the Omega Ensemble and he very much enjoys his work in teaching and research at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Much of this has included world premiere performances and recordings of Australian composers such as Ross Edwards, Carl Vine, Christopher Gordon, Roslyn Page and Elena Kats-Chernin.

 

Vladimir Ashkenazy states: “Mr Clemens Leske is in my opinion an extraordinary musician and pianist.” Life-long musical inspirations have been Erroll Garner, Sviatoslav Richter and his mother and father.

 

KISMET CREDITS

Composer: Elena Kats-Chernin

Violin: Vov Dylan

Piano: Clemens Leske (Clemens Leske appears courtesy of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music)

With

Violin: Victoria Jacono-Gilmovich

Cello: Susan Blake

Double Bass: Nicole Murray-Prior

Recorded at Underwood Studios, Wentworth

Park.

Recorded, Mixed and Mastered by Craig Field

Produced by Wodzislaw Elsley

Distributed by Ambition Records

 

 

“Thank you to all involved for trusting me

in bringing this collection of new music to

audiences.” Vov Dylan

www.vovdylan.com