★★★★½ A symphonic celebration of Nigel Butterley’s 80th birthday.

Iwaki Auditorium
October 31, 2015

Eminent Australian composer Nigel Butterley AM turned 80 in May, 2015, and this (unfortunately) rare performance of his works doubled as a joyous celebration at which the composer was happily present. Butterley lectured for nearly twenty years in contemporary music at Newcastle Conservatorium from 1973, following several decades of prolific and prize-winning compositional output and a long association with the ABC. He became a Member of the Order of Australia in 1991, and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Newcastle in 1996. Three of his works were performed tonight, along with the world premiere of a new Butterley-inspired work by Elliott Gyger.

Zubin Kanga is an internationally acclaimed pianist who specialises in contemporary new music repertoire, and his performance of Butterley’s Uttering Joyous Leaves (1981) for solo piano opened the programme. This intricate and densely-compressed work was commissioned for the Sydney International Piano Competition in 1981, and was given a reading glistening with delicacy and precision by Kanga. Elliott Gyger’s From Joyous Leaves (2015) is a concerto for piano and chamber orchestra that ‘draws its inspiration and materials’ from Uttering Joyous Leaves. Gyger...