Gareth Farr: Orchestral Music - CD

About

Gareth Farr has become a household name - and with good reason. This CD features a selection of quality orchestral works performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. The CD includes From the Depths Sound the Great Sea Gongs, a commission by the NZSO for their 50th anniversary and which has since proven especially popular for study in schools. There follows the rhapsodic Waipoua featuring Mary Scott on the clarinet. Le Temps est a la Pluie is a protest work against French nuclear testing. Farr has long held an interest in gamelan, and Tabuh Pacific reconciles the gamelan orchestra with the symphony orchestra. Queen of Demons is something of a sequel to an earlier work, Lilith's Dream of Ecstasy, and the work "evokes the terrifyingly beautiful sight of Lilith leading her flock of black demons, flying through the air, plummeting from the sky, and creating havoc wherever they land" (CD booklet MMT 2021).