Sydney’s Paul Stanhope has won seven Art Music Awards over two decades and his latest release Spin Dances shows us why. Humour is never far from the surface in the five-part title work, miniatures loosely based on a Baroque suite, that opens this irresistible digital recording, superbly played by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra under Benjamin Northey.
The “spin” refers both to the musical style, churning rhythms with bright textures, and the word in its political sense. The opening The Doctor Is ‘In’ sets the ironic tone with some fine horn work and percussion before Stanhope takes a poke at social media with The Twitterverse (Pastoral) – disturbing chatter over a lovely horn cadence – and the 24-hour news cycle with Press Release Promenade. Listen out for the ABC Radio’s fanfare, it’s a hoot!
Take Out The Trash Tango, with its fine bassoon solo and clownish clarinet, requires little explanation, and it is all neatly wrapped up with The 24 Hour Spin Cycle.
Stanhope was commissioned to compose a companion piece to Geminiani’s La Folia and Giving Ground, recently premiered here by Ilya Gringolts and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, is the result. The familiar ground bass gives way to dissonant downward slurring figures and a general Dali-esque melting clocks feel. The final work on the album, Cloudforms, could easily be a companion to something by Sibelius – the Fifth Symphony, perhaps. It’s a beautiful eight-minute piece where Debussyan harmonies vie with the crisp coolness of Takemitsu – one of Stanhope’s composing heroes – and billowing brass and woodwinds.
Composer: Paul Stanhope
Works: Spin Dances
Performer: Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra/Benjamin Northey
Label: ABC Classic ABCL0142D
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