Matthew Hindson

Tall Poppies has released a CD of Australian music for oboe and piano entitled Bright Vessel. Performed by oboist Stephen Robinson with Elyane Laussade, this disc includes the premiere recording of Night Pieces for oboe and piano.

Two works for violin and piano have recently been completed.

The first of these is the Violin Concertino: Summer Stories. This work was commissioned by Michael Patterson and Ars Musica Australis. Mike Patterson particularly wanted a work in which the solo violin part was not too difficult - that is, it would be playable by violinists of standard between Grades 7 and A.Mus.A. AMEB levels. The work is subtitled “Summer Stories” because each of its three movements relates in some way to an aspect of summer.
The second new work for violin and piano is Maralinga. Maralinga is a place in the South Australian desert, and was the site for secret British nuclear testing in the 1950s and 1960s. Not a happy place in Australian history for either the Aboriginal inhabitants of the area, nor the Australian service personnel who were unwittingly used as guinea pigs for the effects of radiation.

Maralinga was written for Lara St. John, who will premiere the piece on 20 March, 2009. It was commissioned by the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts.

The final movement of the Kalkadungu (co-composed by and featuring didjeridu virtuoso William Barton) was performed recently as part of the 2009 G’Day USA celebration concerts in Royce Hall, LA and Carnegie Hall, NY.

The performers were William Barton and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arvo Volmer.

The concerts were favourably reviewed, including by the LA Times.

ABC Classic FM, Australia’s national fine music broadcaster, has released a wonderful series of historic recordings of Australian music on a new website, Australian Music Presented (AMP).

The ABC has recorded a significant number of Australian works throughout its history. This is a wonderful initiative in terms of making recordings of Australian music available to the world.

One piece of mine has been included in the initial tranch: In Memoriam (Concerto for Amplified Cello and Orchestra). This is from the premiere performance with soloist Nathan Waks and conductor Richard Gill with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

More great reviews have been received for the disc of the Violin Concerto, performed by Lara St. John with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

One of the latest is from Gramophone, which said:

“The latest effort from the Canadian violinist reveals a serious artist using her fame to bring a worthy new work to light rather than focusing on herself. The generic title of Matthew Hindson’s Violin Concerto is almost false advertising, as its three movements are vibrant programmatic music. It’s the sort of work that should get audiences running, not walking, back to concert halls on new-music nights… such joyous music can only be written by a composer both optimistic at heart and confident enough not to give a hoot what colleagues might think of its simplistic theme and sensational treatment.” (Andrew Druckenbrod)

Tonight (Sat 20 Sept, 10.30pm) I am the guest programmer for the New Music Up Late show with Julian Day, on ABC Classic FM.

New Music Up Late presenter, Julian Day.

If you happen to catch this show, you’ll hear a suitably eclectic selection of music ranging from Penderecki to Ross Edwards to Merzbow to Carcass. It will also be streamed from the New Music Up Late website for delayed broadcast.

It’s quite amazing how the selecting music like this can result in contemplation upon the whole compositional process.