Linda Kouvaras: Piano Music, Chamber Works and Songs, Vol. 2
As with many other Australian composers, the music of Linda Kouvaras (b. 1960) has a strong sense of space, expressed in lyrical, elegiac melodic lines that soar over freewheeling piano textures. The two substantial works on this second Toccata Classics album of her music demonstrate her concern that her compositions engage with the outside world: the epic Herring Island Piano Sonata adds narrator and recorded sound – not least of local birds – to the piano to bring alive the Indigenous history of a small hidden paradise in downtown Melbourne, and the poems set in Winter Came Early reveal a mother and daughter coming to terms with a fatal diagnosis of cancer
Coady Green, piano
Georgina Lewis, piano
Jane Magão, soprano
Karen Van Spall, mezzo-soprano
Tiriki Onus, narrator
Roger Alsop, sound design
Listen To This Recording:
Herring Island – Piano Sonata for Piano, Narrator and Recorded Sound
- I. Ngargee Tree (2:05)
- II. Introit (6:50)
- III. Long Island/Spiritus (10:50)
- IV. Waterways (6:10)
- V. Heartbeat (5:12)
- VI. Tanderrum (7:22)
- VII. Life Force (6:26)
Winter Came Early – Song-Cycle for Two Female Voices and Piano
- I. The World is so Beautiful (4:14)
- II. In the Garden of Makomp (7:31)
- III. My Anger, My Friend (8:51)
- IV. Winter Came Early (3:07)
- V. Hope (2:20)
- VI. Coming Home (4:13)
- VII. Epilogue. To David (3:32)
First Recordings
Linda Kouvaras :
https://classicmelbourne.com.au/linda-kouvaras-piano-music-chamber-works-and-songs-volume-2/
Classic Melbourne :
‘Thanks to the indefatigable curator and über-talented pianist Coady Green, and Toccata Classics, we have a project that documents the output of one of Australia’s foremost composers. But Volume 2 of Linda Kouvaras’s piano music, chamber works and songs is much more than a worthy enterprise. Comprising two significant works that have immediate appeal, this volume yields even richer rewards with repeated listening. […]
Coady Green displays great command of all aspects of pianism, playing with persuasive conviction within a world of shifting emotions.
It would be impossible to choose a more appropriate pianist than Georgina Lewis for second work, Winter Came Early: Song-Cycle for Two Female Voices and Piano (2021 – 2022). Kouvaras was commissioned by Green and Lewis to write this song cycle, setting the poetry of Catherine Lewis and her daughter Georgina […] with two female voices (mezzo-soprano and soprano) representing mother and daughter. A deeply personal work. […]
[Winter Came Early] sung with wonderful purity of tone and emotional sincerity by Magão, who delivers even the highest notes with ease. […]
The high tessitura [in golden thread] is managed without strain, with the two voices blending particularly well. […]
Highly recommended.’
—Heather Leviston, Classic Melbourne
AllMusic :
‘The two works on this album, representing the second in a planned series of seven devoted to Kouvaras’ music on the Toccata Classics label, have a strong and direct emotional appeal. […] [Herring Island Piano Sonata] has the strong effect of capturing the various voices and perspectives that seem to resound in the history of a place. Equally moving is Winter Came Early: Song Cycle for two voices and piano. […] The means are straightforward and traditional, the effect direct and compelling. This valuable release will introduce Western listeners to an interesting Australian composer and make them want to hear more of her.’
—James Manheim, AllMusic