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'Ahi' CD released
14 Jul 2008 16:24 |
The incandescent cover is no accident: 'Ahi' is the Maori word for 'fire' and it’s the Bulgarian word for 'fire' that provides the name for the Ogen Trio. Ahi the album, produced by Wayne Laird for Atoll records, was officially launched this week at the University of Waikato, the centre about which so much of this creative enterprise has focused. Those present at the launch 'voted' for the CD's excellence in the most positive way with 56 copies being sold that evening.
The Ogen Trio consists of Kathrine Austin (piano), James Tennant (cello) and Dmitri Atanassov (violin) and their first self-titled CD (released in 1999) included the work which gives this second CD its name. Ahi by Gareth Farr is one of six New Zealand works on the Ogen Trio's new release.
Ahi the album includes contributions from their composing colleagues in the University of Waikato Music Department: Martin Lodge, David Griffiths and Michael Williams. Martin Lodge's Summer Music was commissioned by the Ogen Trio for the Rotorua Chamber Music Festival of 2001. David Griffiths is both composer and soloist in his Six Watercolours for piano trio and baritone, settings of poems by Charles Brasch, while Michael William's Behind the Parapet includes electronic effects. This latter work was a Chamber Music New Zealand commission and was toured by the Ogen Trio in 2005.John Psathas originally wrote Three Island Songs in 1995 for the Kandinsky Trio, a previous incarnation of the Ogens when the lineup was piano, cello and clarinet. He rescored it in 1999 for the Ogen Trio and on this CD we can hear both versions, the earlier version of the score featuring Peter Scholes as clarinetist.
New Zealand Herald critic William Dart says that the new CD is:
"Sublime and haunting. [This] new CD from the Ogen trio has been a long time coming, but worth the wait. This handsome album... acknowledges the pioneering role that the Ogens have played in commissioning and performing NZ music."
Ahi is available through SOUNZ and other enlightened CD outlets.
[Since the recordings were made, Dimitri Atanassov has taken up the role of Concertmaster for the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. Lara Hall is now Lecturer in violin at Waikato University.]
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