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Through Tropical Stars

David Joseph’s Through Tropical Stars is a captivating collection of five works inspired by the natural world. From the vibrant, garden-like imagery of Concertino to the contemplative stillness of The Afternoon, Joseph’s compositions bring nature’s textures, patterns, and sounds to life. Performed by leading ensembles including the Seymour Group, Zdenek Bruderhans, Jennifer Newsome, and Trio Classico, this album showcases Joseph’s unique ability to evoke beauty and emotion through music.

The album opens with Concertino for flute, viola, and percussion, performed by the Seymour Group. This vibrant piece offers a musical window into a lush garden, full of colour, light, and life, where the sounds of birds, sunlight, and nature’s rhythms are woven into intricate melodies and gestures. The title track, Through Tropical Stars, for 2 flutes performed by flutists Zdenek Bruderhans and Jennifer Newsome, takes a more abstract approach, unfolding in three short movements that explore the flautists’ technical prowess while capturing the essence of shifting patterns and textures.

Next, Sonata for Clarinet and 2 Percussionists provides a delicate exploration of the clarinet’s warm, woody tones, enhanced by the mallet percussion work of marimba and xylophone, creating a rich interplay of timbres. String Trio No 2, performed by the Holland Trio, further evokes the natural world, drawing on the sounds of birds, foliage, and the gentle hum of a garden throughout the day. The album concludes with The Afternoon, a contemplative work for piano trio performed by Trio Classico, which evokes the stillness and quiet melancholy of the late afternoon, bringing the collection to a serene close.

Through Tropical Stars is a testament to Joseph’s unique ability to translate the natural world into music, capturing moments of beauty, movement, and stillness with subtlety and sophistication.

Artists

Seymour Group

The Seymour Group was founded in 1976 by Peter Platt in the University of Sydney Music Department with the aim of performing works from the 19th and 20th century focussing on music by Australian composers.

The Holland Trio

Consisting of Josje ter Haar, Susanne van Els and Job ter Haar, The Holland Trio was formed in 1985.

Trio Classico

The Trio Classico (Stefan Fahrni, piano/ Urs Walker, violin/ Regula Häusler Menges, cello) was founded in the second half of the eighties in Zurich.

Jennifer Newsome

Jennifer Newsome is a flautist, educator, and academic researcher.

Zdenk Bruderhans

Zdenek Bruderhans was born in Czechoslovakia, and has performed with some of the greatest artists such as Richter, Gilels, Oistrach, Kogan, Rostropovic, and Szeryng.

Nigel Sabin

Nigel Sabin pursued a career as a clarinettist and performed throughout Australia as a soloist and orchestral musician with various orchestras and ensembles, including the Adelaide, Tasmanian, West Australian, and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, Orchestra Victoria, State Opera of South Australia, the WA Wind Quintet, the Seymour Group, and Magpie Musicians.

Ian Cleworth

Ian Cleworth was a student at Adelaide University along with Nigel Sabin, Christine Draeger and Jenny Newsome during the 1970s and 1980s.


Press quotes

“David Joseph’s Concertino for flute, viola and percussion (revised from a 1984 version of the score) (is) full of pulsations, figurations and continuities of traditional concert music. I certainly don’t mean that as a subtle form of denigration. While it is always possible that a creator with vigorous concepts will outdistance a more naturally music inventor, I see no reason to discount the significance of the musicality that may disclose itself abundantly in the work of a young composer.”

— Roger Covell, Sydney Morning Herald

“Through Tropical Stars eschewed all avant-garde technical experimentation, concentrating on good tone, pitch flexibility and aural awareness of changing patterns. (It is) one of the most effective duets for two two flautists I have heard.”

— Johannes Roose, Adelaide Advertiser

Track Listing

  1. Concertino (1988) David Joseph
  2. Through Tropical Stars (1977) David Joseph
  3. Sonata for Clarinet and 2 Percussionists (1978) David Joseph
  4. String Trio No. 2 (1991) David Joseph
  5. The Afternoon (1991) David Joseph

Performers

Composer

David Joseph

Born in Melbourne in 1954, David Joseph showed no early musical aptitude. Early childhood musical influences, however, came from Russian music - Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev, the Red Army choir, Russian folk music and art. These influences remained all through life, and engendered a great love of Russian schools, especially Stravinsky, Borodin, Rachmaninov and the like.


Where to buy

Through Tropical Stars is available as as CD. It can be purchased online through Buywell Music or the Australian Music Centre which both offer secure online ordering.

Move CDs can be ordered through music retailers across Australia including Readings.

Product details

List price
$25.00 AUD
Contributor
Martin Wright
Release date
November 2024
Copyright
© 2024 David Joseph
Phonogram
℗ 2024 Move Records
Categories
Australian, Classical
Catalogue number
MD 3467
Alternate catalogue number
MD3467
Barcode
EAN 9314574346725