SYMPHONY 6
Anthony's Symphony No. 6 has been reviewed by Nick Barnard of MusicWeb International and Elizabeth Kerr of Five Lines. Begun during the first Covid lockdown in 2020, the work reflects on personal as well as societal challenges. The symphony has a meditative character, with reflections on love, death and
spiritual realms.
A feature of the work is a recurring saxophone solo.
A Rattle Records CD of Symphony No. 6 has been recorded by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and is now available for purchase.
FAREWELL PERFORMANCE
Anthony’s recent composition Farewell, for bassoon and string quartet, is being premiered at the Martinborough Music Festival on September 24 - the day after the Symphony No 6 premiere! Commissioned by the festival, the piece was composed for Todd Gibson-Cornish, bassoon, and string players Donald Armstrong, Wilma Smith, Amanda Verner and Matthias Balzat. Tickets can be purchased from Martinborough Music Festival
HORN TRIO: RE-BIRTH
Anthony has composed a Horn Trio
for the group Armstrong Jacobs Liu (Donald Armstrong, violin, Samuel Jacobs, horn,
Jian Liu, piano). It uses the same combination of instruments as the famous Brahms trio, and complements it nicely in a
programme.
It received its premiere in Upper Hutt, New Zealand, in
March 2023 to an appreciative audience. The trio has toured other North Island centres and will be recorded
for Radio New Zealand Concert. The work has a theme of regeneration following illness, as
well as reflecting on childhood.
The trio will be performed again in Wellington on Sunday 16th July. This time Alex Hambleton will be playing the horn part. More info . . .
Score and parts are now available from the Works link on this website.
DAYDREAM BY THE CLUTHA
Anthony has composed a short piano piece that evokes a summery day in
Central Otago by the beautiful Clutha river. It was commissioned by
Rae De Lisle for publication in her pedagogical volume of New Zealand
piano music entitled Fit 4 Piano Etudes: 12 etudes by New Zealand
composers. It is designed for intermediate to advanced pianists.
The piece
has just had its premiere, along with the 11 other
etudes, all played by pupils of Rae. Daydream by the Clutha was
performed by Melody Deng, and will be recorded by Stephen De Pledge to
accompany the publication.
STRING QUARTET NO. 3
In May 2023 Anthony completed his third string quartet, 20 years after
the second quartet. Anthony's quartet is sub-titled In time. Two dance
movements frame the work, contrasting with two slow movements entitled
Heartbeat and Funeral March. Sandwiched in the middle is a movement
named Perpetual Motion. The work is a meditation on the passing of
time, and explores the temporal nature of our existence; at the same
time, it celebrates the joy of creating and performing music in time
with each other.
The new work was premiered by The Jade
Quartet on June 24 at Ferndale House in Mt Albert, Auckland. The Jade
features Miranda Adams and Liu-Yi Retallick on violins, Robert
Ashworth viola and James Yoo, cello.
NZ Piano Works published in China
Some of Anthony’s piano music has been included in an exciting project involving the first ever publication of New Zealand piano works in China. Pianists Jian Liu and Freya Yang and the NZ Music Trust in association with the Shanghai Music Publishing House has
released two volumes of music for younger and more experienced players.
The volumes include Anthony’s Caroline Bay Suite
, Olveston Suite and a selection of the 24 Preludes.
As well as the hard copy of the music scores, video of Jian Liu performing the works has been released on the YouTube channel for the New Zealand Music Trust and can be viewed by following the links above.
Search, instrumentation, buy PDF
NEWS ARCHIVE
PREMIERE OF Taioro ki te Ao
The new collaborative work for poet, viola and piano Taioro ki te Ao was premiered at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa on May 30. Poet Sharn Maree of Ngāpuhi, Te Whānau ā Apanui, has written the texts that explore Aotearoa’s past. Taioro ki te Ao is about lightness and darkness and focuses on issues from the colonial past, bringing them into the present. Donald Maurice, viola, and Sherry Grant, piano, perform the music between the verses. The new work was performed again on June 2 at the International Viola Congress, at Columbus State University, Georgia.
Read more.
Watch
first performance.
It received its first New Zealand performances in the 2023 Wellington Fringe Festival
ANTHONY'S film page at SOUNZ
SOUNZ Centre for NZ Music has created a page containing all the films they have made over the years of Ritchie performances. It is an amazing job they do to support NZ composers! Here is the Ritchie page.
ANTHONY'S FIRST 5 SYMPHONIES ON SOUNZ
Each of Ritchie’s symphonies have proved to be an impressive fusion of public utterance and personal journey. The current group of five will be joined by a sixth, also written due/in response to the COVID pandemic but it is clear from the five already performed that this is developing into a powerful cycle of post-modern symphonies the equal of any. Nick Barnard, MusicWeb International
Read more about Anthony's symphonies at Sounz.