Christopher Willcock, is increasingly renowned as an Australian composer.
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In our latest edition of The Bridge, Christopher previewed his new work "Divertimento - Nolan's Backyard".
After hearing it for the first time at its premiere performance by Melbourne Chamber Orchestra in August, he tells us here of his reaction.
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"Composers in Bach’s and Mozart’s days usually had a big say in how their pieces sounded: they either played these new pieces themselves, or conducted the musicians who did. Whilst there’s been something of a return of the composer-performer in our own day, it is still common for a composer to write for a performer, or a group of performers, distinct from him- or herself.
"Such was the case with my new work Divertimento for Strings: Nolan’s Backyard
"The work was commissioned by Australia Pro Arte (now Melbourne Chamber Orchestra) and the sound produced by its core group of players I’ve come to know fairly well by attending their concerts.
"One of the composition maxims passed on to me by my teacher Peter Sculthorpe was that you will get far better musical results from your performers if you write for them rather than against them. Evident enough, really, but not always followed by every composer. If a composer would like to make a group of players shine, the best path to follow is to write to their strengths.
"Some of the strengths of the MCO are well enough known:
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- "technical challenges were answered (high-lying writing for the violins, especially in the softer passages, chains of notes in harmonics; several virtuoso cadenzas, etc.);
- "the conviction that was clear in the firm-sounding rhythms in the first movement as well as the lush chording in the second movement;
- "the almost magical moment at the end of the second movement where after a silence following a loud build-up, the orchestra then enters with a extremely quiet chord across its full range, hushed and marvellously suspended in time."
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"As it happened, I was not able to attend any of the orchestra’s rehearsals—the first time I heard this work was at the first concert on Sunday afternoon.
"What did happen, though, was the opportunity to go through the piece with the conductor Benjamin Northey and the concertmaster William Hennessy when matters of style and interpretation, as well as solutions to the demands placed upon the performers, were discussed and resolved.
"As I said to both these men after the concerts, 'a composer could not have been in better hands.'
Christopher Willcock"
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