News & Press Releases - 2001
PROMETHEAN EDITIONS TO PUBLISH BARTÓK’S VIOLA CONCERTO
 27 August 2001 - Promethean Editions announced today the forthcoming publication of the new critical restoration of Bela Bartók’s Viola Concerto made by Hungarian violist Csaba Erdélyi. This represents a major contribution to Bartók scholarship, and will revive international interest in an important work by one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century.
The newly restored Viola Concerto was given its world premiere at the 24th International Viola Congress in Wellington, New Zealand, in April 2001 by Csaba Erdélyi with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marc Taddei.
Promethean Editions is to publish the concerto in both piano reduction and study score formats. The new edition will be available from Promethean Editions for sale world-wide via the Internet, but due to copyright restrictions will only be allowed to be sold by retailers in Australia and New Zealand.
BACKGROUND
At the time of Bartók’s death in 1945, the Viola Concerto only existed in the form of a complete rough draft, and this was reconstructed and orchestrated by Tibor Serly and William Primrose (the work’s dedicatee), and published in 1950 by Boosey & Hawkes. For many years this was considered to be the definitive version of Bartók’s last work. Recent research has shown that this edition contains many differences and additions to Bartók’s original draft, and it is these which Erdélyi has aimed to correct and restore in his own performing edition.
 Bartók’s music and the folk music of Eastern Europe are truly Csaba Erdélyi’s mother tongue. From a very early age he studied composition, conducting and performance with eminent Hungarian musicians who carried on the Bartók tradition. The first time he studied the Bartók-Serly Viola Concerto, Erdélyi instinctively felt he identified those parts which were not Bartók’s original, and when the manuscript of the work, long considered lost, was rediscovered and made available for research in 1978, Erdélyi set out to restore and realise the concerto in every detail.
Erdélyi spent many years researching this and other of Bartók’s works, comparing first drafts, rehearsal copies, and Bartók’s choices of instrumentation before embarking on his own orchestration of the concerto. He has sought the advice of the renowned Bartók scholars Antokoletz and Somfai, as well as the leading Hungarian composers Kurtág and Eötvös, and the score has been tried out and refined through many rehearsals and performances in several educational institutions.
STUART GREENBAUM RECEIVES COMPOSITION AWARD
20 August 2001 - Stuart Greenbaum has been announced as the 2001 winner of the annual Albert Maggs Composition Award. This award, open to all Australian composers, carries a commission fee of A$4,000 for the composition of a new work of a 'serious' nature. A performance subsidy of A$1,500 towards the cost of the work's premiere is also included. Greenbaum was selected from the 33 candidates for the award, joining a list of past recipients which includes Gerrard Brophy, Brenton Broadstock, Christopher Willcock and David Joseph.
Greenbaum plans to write a large-scale sonata for alto saxophone and piano, inspired by events surrounding the death of all the crew members aboard the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk which sank with all hands in the Barents Sea on 12 August 2000.
DOUGLAS LILBURN (1915-2001)
6 June 2001 - The composer Douglas Lilburn died today, aged 85. His contribution to New Zealand culture is immeasurable. Not only will he be remembered for leading the way in establishing a genuinely vernacular voice in New Zealand classical music, but his steadfast support for following generations of composers will be his lasting legacy. Firstly as a trailblazing colleague, then as a teacher and finally as a warm and encouraging presence in the background of musical life, he presided in so many ways over the artistic growth of this country. His music and his memory will live in the hearts of many, many people.
DOUBLE-WHAMMY FOR JOHN PSATHAS
16 May 2001 - Promethean Editions announced today that New Zealand composer John Psathas is to have two of his compositions performed in September this year at the KLANGSPUREN SCHWAZ Festival near Innsbruck, Austria. It is a major coup for a New Zealand composer to be represented at such a prestigious European music festival, and this will do much to increase the profile of both Psathas and New Zealand music.
KLANGSPUREN SCHWAZ, the festival for contemporary music in Tyrol will take place for the 8th time in 2001. This year’s festival centers around Great Britain and the Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth. Further program emphases are new music from Austria and South Tyrol, compositions for percussion with the ensemble The Next Step and soloist Evelyn Glennie, an exhibition, and compositions from various periods of Arnold Schönberg's work to mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death.
The opening concert of KLANGSPUREN 2001 will be given by the Tyrol Symphony Orchestra, Innsbruck, and will feature John Psathas’ Percussion Concerto No.1 for four percussionists and orchestra, conducted by musical director Georg Schmöhe, on 7 September 2001. The percussionists are Evelyn Glennie, Gunnar Fras, Robert Pammer and Norbert Rabanser, who previously toured this concerto with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and conductor Jerzy Maksymiuk in July 1997 (see photo at the bottom of this page).
On 8 September 2001, Psathas’ composition Drum Dances will be performed by percussion ensemble The Next Step. Drum Dances was initially written for one percussionist and pianist and has been performed numerous times by Evelyn Glennie. This performance will be a new arrangement of the work for six percussionists.
Psathas, who is travelling to Innsbruck to attend part of the Festival says "it’s often the way that composers today don’t get a chance to hear their music performed after the initial premiere. In this case, I am very lucky".
Ross Hendy, Psathas’ publisher and manager, said "this is a very significant event for John and New Zealand Music. It is just as important as New Zealand fashion designers showing their clothes at fashion shows in London and Milan. Having his work performed abroad is becoming a frequent event for John, who last year heard his Saxophone Concerto premiered by world-famous jazz saxophonoist Michael Brecker at an outdoor festival in Bologna, Italy."
http://www.klangspuren.com
NEW WORKS BY FARR, PSATHAS AND HINDSON ADDED TO THE PEL CATALOGUE
09 April 2001 - Two more works by Gareth Farr add to the list of his chamber music published by Promethean Editions; Tuatara, a duet for marimba and piano, which was written to be performed by the composer with pianist Dan Poynton; and Ahi, a piano trio commisioned by the Ogen Trio.
John Psathas’ Piano Quintet, premiered in March 2000 by the New Zealand String Quartet and Dan Poynton, has also been recently signed. A three movement work (c.20 minutes in duration), by turns dramatic, beautiful, violent and mysterious, this is an impressive addition to our catalogue.
Two new piano works by Matthew Hindson, AK-47 and Moments of Plastic Jubilation, are currently in preparation. The former is a work which calls for a special brand of pianism – the composer relates that every performer who has attempted it has suffered injury; and the tone set by the opening tempo indication of Moments of Plastic Jubilation, ”Claydermanesque”, is soon dispelled in a welter of techno-inspired rhythmic craziness. In contrast, Lament, for cello and piano, is a surprisingly beautiful and elegiac work from a composer better-known for music of frenetic speed and high volume.
THREE NEW COMPOSERS SIGN WORKS TO PEL
09 April 2001 - Brenton Broadstock, now one of Australia’s most well established, respected and successful mid-generation composers, joins us with two substantial works for solo piano – In the Silence of Night, written for Peter Sculthorpe’s 60th birthday, and The Dying of the Light.
New Zealander Anthony Ritchie is known for his well-crafted and attractive music. He is represented by the Rhapsody for violin and piano, which was commissioned by Chamber Music New Zealand for performance by Wilma Smith and Michael Houstoun. This single-movement work reflects his study of the music of Bartòk.
Paul Stanhope is making his name in Australia as the composer of music both energetic and lyrical. Three works of his are to be published, Mularra, for violin and cello, and Morning Star II
and Throb, both for mixed chamber ensemble (the latter featuring a blistering, Hendrix-inspired viola solo!)
FIRESTARTERS PIANO ALBUM
09 April 2001 - In repsonse to the demand from piano teachers in New Zealand and Australia for contemporary piano music which is accessible to younger players, we requested from each of our composers a work or works which fitted this brief.
A wide variety of works came back to us, and the result, to be published under the title Firestarters, will be a great showcase of the wide diversity of the music of composers in Australasia, as well as an introduction to the music of composers whose music is published by Promethean Editions.
Composers featured are Farr, Fisher, Greenbaum, Ritchie and Stanhope, as well as a number of other composers whose music is not yet published by Promethean Editions.
The collection will be edited and annotated with suggestions for practice and performance.
Firestarters will be available in September 2001. Watch this space for more details.
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