It occurs to me that throughout music month, we’ve covered many styles, but not classical. Sunday seems a good day to feature a few. Some of these I’ve covered in older music posts, but let’s pull a few of them together into one place.
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
Probably New Zealand’s best known opera singer, I’ve previously featured her singing Puccini’s “O Mio Babbino Caro”. But I just found this – my favourite song by her! I first came across “Bailero” from Songs of The Auvergne when Torville and Dean skated to it. Not be confused with Ravel’s “Bolero”, which they also skated to.
Hayley Westenra
Hayley came to the world’s attention at the tender age of 16. Here she is singing “Hine E Hine” live on Parkinson.
Helen Bowater
Helen is my cousin, so it’s rather sad that I have no understanding of her style of music. But she is a highly regarded composer. Here’s one of her pieces for violin, Lautari. (EDIT: To clarify, she is the composer, not the violinist.)
Linden Loader & Katherine Austin
Katherine Austin is Helen’s cousin on the other side of her family, and is a pianist. This next clip is from a Lunchtime Recital Series and features mezzo soprano Linden Loader, with Katherine accompanying her. Its 48 mins long, so most of you will just want to listen to a little bit in the middle, I imagine.
Linden, being a close friend of my cousin Helen, sang at my aunt’s 90th birthday a few years ago, so I have had the pleasure of hearing her at close quarters.
Jack Body
But we don’t just have female classical musicians here. Jack Body was another friend of Helen’s. Wikipedia says:
Jack Body (1944 – 2015) was a New Zealand composer, ethnomusicologist, photographer, teacher, and arts producer. As a composer, his work comprises concert music, music theatre, electronic music, music for film and dance, and audio-visual gallery installations. A deep and long-standing interest in the music of non-Western cultures - particularly South-East Asian - influenced much of his composing work, particularly his technique of transcribing field recordings. As a tireless organizer of musical events and projects, Body had a significant impact on the promotion of Asian music in New Zealand, as well as the promotion of New Zealand music within the country and abroad. In 2015 he was named a New Zealand Arts Icon, the highest award given by the New Zealand Arts Foundation and the first composer to be so honoured.
Here’s one of his works played by the NZ String Quartet.
Yerevan Trio
And to finish, here’s a group of young people who were the winners of the 2016 National Final Chamber Music
Thanks for listening
Videos from Youtube. Top image is the official logo and appears everywhere. This copy came from Eventfinda.
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