Premiering a Recipe for Disaster

Claire Cowan’s Recipe for Disaster was premiered by the Hutt Valley Concert Orchestra in April 2008, the result of a collaborative creative effort between composer and performers made possible by the 2007 SOUNZ Community Commission.

It is the orchestra’s 50th Anniversary this year and they wanted to have something extra-special in their celebratory concert. At this time in 2007, the orchestra and Claire made a submission outlining the project, describing a work which was to be for divided orchestra and two conductors. Over a period of months musical ideas went back and forth between composer and players as ideas and effects were tried out.

In the end the piece developed into a highly theatrical work, an extended musical metaphor on the idea of ‘too many cook’s spoiling the broth’! Current conductor Brent Stewart and his immediate predecessor Stuart Douglas each conducted one half of the orchestra with wooden spoons, taking turns to add new musical ‘flavours’ in an effort to outdo one another.

“The orchestra was proud to make this piece their own,” Brent said. “They especially adored the light-hearted theatrics involving Stuart and myself as we compete to be the best conductor!”

Claire’s music was a perfect and tasteful (not to mention tasty) blend of styles and genres, utilising unusual instrumental choices and good-humoured references to other well-known pieces. The enjoyment the performers had in creating the work was made obvious in it's premiere and shared with the audience who responded enthusiastically.

The SOUNZ Community Commission is a very special project that seeks to give community groups the experience of working closely with a professional composer in the creation and performance of a new work. Since its inception in 2000 through the generosity of an anonymous donor, the SOUNZ Community Commission has resulted in such diverse works Helen Bowater’s Hu – a work for massed recorders and gamelan for the NZ Recorder Conference in Christchurch in 2001 and Jeff Henderson’s work with senior instrumental students to create an improvised piece for the (09)03 Festival of Contemporary Music.

More information is available here , or contact the Centre if you need to know more.