New Zealand composer Farr's orchestral works are noted for loud percussion (particularly Polynesian drumming) but his piano music here is more accessibly fast and furious, apart from five brief Love Songs that are just plain boring. The Horizon from Owhiro Bay is a clever Wellington landscape prelude, but, for me, the real impressionist gems are Shadow of the Hawk, which also employs cellist Jisoo Ok, and Nga Whetu e Whitu, with flautist Jesse Shiffman. Most of the other six pieces for piano alone are Balinese or Indonesian gamelan-influenced pieces, tinged with echoes of Messiaen, Prokofiev or even Shostakovich.
Aucklander Wong Doe, a Juilliard graduate, was recorded in New York last year and provides brilliantly sonorous or peppery sounds, even chasing through a Mouse Hole.
Highlight: Lively dimensions to Farr's music.
Joann Falletta, new principal conductor of this splendid orchestra, presents five little-known works by English composer Gustav Holst (1874-1934), famous for his masterpiece The Planets. The overture Walt Whitman was written in 1899 not long after his student days and Cotswolds Symphony soon after. The latter is notable for its long slow movement, an elegy in memory of utopian socialist William Morris. Indra is an exciting and inspired "symphonic poem" reflecting Holst's interest in Indian philosophy. A Winter Idyll shows his inventive talents (including a fine cor anglais solo). Japanese Suite was written for a Japanese dancer in 1915, when writing The Planets, and has six enjoyable pieces. Holst still has other impressive but "forgotten" music that deserves attention for CDs.
Highlight: Cotswolds' elegy and Indra.
