---

Interview with the pianist ROGER WOODWARD by ANGELA BOYD January 2010
 
When I was in the USA and Canada visiting friends and family over the Christmas period, I met up with Roger Woodward at his elegant Park Merced home, close to the Harding Golf course and Lake Merced and within walking distance of the Pacific Ocean. Filled with interesting memorabilia including many photos of him with Richter, Xenakis, Feldman, Takemitsu, Dillon, Abbado and others, as well beautiful evocative paintings of the Australian outback, Roger Woodward lives surrounded by his huge collection of recordings, sheet music, miniature scores and books on music
 
 

 
photo of Angela Boyd and Roger Woodward (credit Daniel Morgan)
 
 
What are your most recent recordings?
 
In 2009, Celestial Harmonies released the Debussy Préludes; Chopin F-minor Piano Concerto in its original quintet form coupled with Beethoven’s Bonn-period C-major Piano Quartet, with the musicians of the Alexander String Quartet; and in late November, Bach’s "Das Wohltemperierte Clavier".
 
You received the Goethe prize for your live premiere performance of Morton Feldman’s Piano and Orchestra with Hans Zender for CPO Records, a Diapason d’or for Feldman’s epic Triadic Memories; the award of Chevalier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres for your dedication to French music; Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik for your recording of Bach Partitas and for your recording of the Bach “Well-Tempered Clavier” there have been impressive reviews in the UK and Germany.
 
How do you feel about all that, and, is there perhaps, a recording that remains particularly close to you?
 
I am amazed and delighted at the awards. As for live recordings, I remember how pleased Xenakis was with the Claudio Abbado collaboration on Keqrops at the Wien Modern and the DG recording with the Mahlerjugendorchester. Rich orchestral detail and a wide range of dynamics were crystal clear and on fine equipment the sweep of the primordial Xenakis sound remained vivid. Studio recordings of Takemitsu, late Skryabin and Prokofiev produced by Ralph Lane for ABC Classics remain close as does the more recent Bach collaboration with Ulrich Kraus in Munich.

Your early 1970s recording of the Barraqué "Sonate" for EMI and twenty-four Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues for RCA Records won prestigious accolades and one still reads comments regretting their non-availability in CD format. Are there any plans for their re-release?
 
Yes, Celestial Harmonies is planning to release them soon.
 
Where did your pre-Shostakovich journey take you?
 
… to a progressive series of performances, articles and more recently, a recording of experimental Russian and early Soviet piano music that Celestial Harmonies is about to release, including works by Aleksandr and Julian Skryabin, Boris Pasternak, Stantchinsky, Mosolov, Roslavetz and Obukhov.
 
What are your most recent publications?
 
A monograph for the Celestial Harmonies release in November, 2009, entitled “ In Search of a Performance Practice for Das Wohltemperierte Clavier"; a chapter in the forthcoming Xenakis Performance publication for the Pendragon Press, New York and an autobiographical commission planned for publication at the end of this year for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
 
What are your next concerts?
 
Xenakis in New York, on January 19th; Dvorák Piano Quintet in San Francisco, with the Alexander String Quartet on January 30th and a recital of Debussy, Chopin and Bach, in London on March 11th, to raise funds for The Tait Memorial Trust.
 
What repertoire would you like to record?
 
The symphonic works of Iannis Xenakis - ideally, his complete creative output; Beethoven's Sonatas and Concertos; Brahms Concertos and late piano music; James Dillon's Five Books of Elements; J.S. Bach's Concertos; keyboard works, the passion music, church cantatas and B Minor Mass; Mozart and Wagner; works by Gabrieli, Schutz, Purcell and certain orchestral works of Stravinsky, Debussy, Schoenberg, Feldman, Takemitsu, Elgar and Jean Barraqué.
 
Was there a defining moment or breakthrough when you decided that music would be your life?
 
There were various impressions, but the most significant was when I first heard the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Nothing was ever the same again. From that moment on, I knew I would live the rest of my life with music. Not long afterwards, l began studying the keyboard suites, "The Well-Tempered Clavier", and, from the age of thirteen, most of the organ works, some of the church cantatas, the passion music and B-minor Mass. Piano studies were spent sorting out fugues whilst reading the works of earlier and later composers. During this period l was lucky enough to have had access to a memorable instrument with four manuals at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney, and a magnificent cembalo.
 
The breakthrough, however, came a few years later, when I won the Commonwealth Finals of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Concerto and Vocal Competition. The series of concerto and recital appearances that followed formed part of the award and they provided an effective transition into the profession. It was from this time that I began playing concerts and teaching. However, this is only half the story, because I had also been smitten by the music of early twentieth century Russian composers, as well as Schoenberg, Webern, Bartók, Debussy, Messiaen and the music of Messiaen’s students - principally Xenakis, Stockhausen, Barraqué and Boulez. I left Sydney to continue studying at the National Chopin Academy in Warsaw where there was an annual showcase of new music called the "Warsaw Autumn". From then on I played what was invariably described as either "modern" music or the "traditional” repertoire, when there seemed to be little or no difference between the two.
 
Music was always new at one stage or another and it certainly remained that way for me irrespective of when it was composed. Some of the programmes which I enjoyed putting together were of Frescobaldi+Gabrieli+Xenakis or Cage+Feldman+Bach or Schumann+Schubert+Schoenberg or Beethoven+Barraqué. Nowadays, this has become normal programming, although I enjoy directing the masterpieces of Xenakis and Bach in addition to playing keyboard instruments.
 

Xenakis has dedicated three pieces to you – Keqrops (1986); Mists for solo piano (1980) and Paille in the Winds (1992). How would you describe Xenakis’ place in the evolution of music?
 
Despite his own modest hesitations at the beginning of his career and the pejorative comments of his detractors, Xenakis somehow knew that he had inherited the sacred trust to carry the main body of Occidental music into the twenty-first century in the monumental traditions to which he belonged, spanning Josquin to Messiaen.
 
It would be an understatement to add that he engendered as profound a respect for his loyalty to human rights, as for his dedication to developing experimental achievements in the fields of architecture, mathematics, philosophy and music. He held a profound respect for peace and tolerance and, above all, human rights, which set him apart from others in the field. Takemitsu, and Feldman both shared his lofty spirit as well as Messiaen, who staunchly encouraged him at every turn. Like Bach before him, and despite similar criticism, Xenakis galvanized the essential codes which straddled two ages of thought and in this respect the two giants greet each other across the centuries with prolific outputs in ways that subsequently altered the destiny of western art-music.
 
Why have you made only two recordings of Xenakis’ music so far – a live performance of Keqrops with Abbado in Vienna and your own direction of Kraanerg with the musicians of the Alpha Centauri Ensemble?
 
These were recorded because I felt ready to make a statement about them and the composer was extremely pleased with both performances. It has taken me thirty years to feel the same way about his massive solo piano piece entitled Mists and so I find myself only now ready to record it, although I have recorded all his solo piano pieces at one time or another for radio or live concert situations.
 
Did Morton Feldman write as extensively for you?
 
Yes, he composed the 90 minute Triadic Memories for me, as well as an earlier piano piece and Piano and Orchestra. Takemitsu also wrote various works for me all of which were recorded by ABC Classics.

What has been your greatest challenge?
 
Mastering legato cantabile and the blending of sonorities such as the final orchestral chord to the Adagio of Brahms’s D-minor Concerto, for example. The piecing together of this chord is orchestrally complex in performance practice and when perfectly executed is a miracle of beauty such as when the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra performed it in a past collaboration that still haunts me. Chopin achieves, in a single sound, this same kind of complexity of bringing together many aspects of a piece. He achieves this as a cadential act that remains one of the highlights of the Nocturnes. Somehow, he manages to sum up a whole piece in just one soft chord. When one hundred musicians create the same effect in the close of the Brahms Adagio movement, it is equally memorable although much more difficult to realise.
 
What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?
 
Trust yourself.
 
Which musicians do you most admire?
 
Josquin, Palestrina, Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli, Frescobaldi, Sweelinck, Louis Couperin, Purcell, Rameau, J.S.Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Wagner, Varèse, Bartók, Takemitsu and Feldman. And for other reasons, Debussy, Messiaen, Barraqué, Szymanowski, Elgar, Lutoslawski, Pärt and Xenakis. I would also not exclude Knappertsbusch, Mengelberg, Flagstadt, Konwitschny, von Karajan, Kondrashin, Heifetz, Oistrakh, Kirkpatrick, Kraus, Lehrndorfer, Ogdon and Barenboim.
 
At heart I’m just a frustrated …?
 
Chef
 
What works of art would you most like to own?
 
Let's begin with Titian, Bosch, Rousseau; continue with Chagall, Kandinsky. Matisse, Mondrian, Rothko. However, there are also certain fabrics, screens and gardens that I love but perhaps we should stop there.
 
How did you get into contemporary music in your early career?
 
I was born in a far away place of great natural beauty where children were encouraged not only to respect freedom, nature and tradition, but also to believe that it was noble to dream and to create the new. We were encouraged to be inventive, take pride in our efforts, and to develop vision, irrespective of how modest those achievements may have been. I fell head over heels in love with the idea of composing, painting, of printing my own fabrics while learning the fugues of Johann Sebastian Bach, and sonatas and concertos of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Prokofiev, Bartók and Schoenberg.
 
An inspirational mentor was Sir Eugene Goossens who was a grand champion of new music of the early/mid-twentieth century; his direction of Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Bartók in Sydney, at that time, was unforgettable. My piano teacher, Alexander Sverjensky was a die-hard conservative in some ways, although there was another side to him that few knew about. He introduced me not only to the music of the golden age Russian composers, but also to late Skryabin and to works of Gurdieyev and Alexander Bloch. He held an extensive knowledge of the music of early twentieth century Russian experimental composers who were contemporaries of Skryabin including Prokofiev, Medtner, Stantchinsky, Roslavetz, Krein, Mosolov, Lourié, Obukhov, Vyshnegradzky, Liapunov, Melkich, Protopopov and others, who managed to emigrate or who were later wiped out by Stalin.
 
As a teenager I was lucky enough to become acting organist in a local church, directing Bach with a small mixed choir, in the absence of the resident organist while studying church music. In this period, I also studied conducting and composition and played the piano music of Bartók, Busoni, Schoenberg, Webern, Debussy, and Stravinsky. I came to know the works of Messiaen and those of his celebrated students. Within a short space of time, I also worked with Toru Takemitsu, Morton Feldman, Franco Donatoni, Hans Otte and John Cage, and began collaborating with them on a regular basis. New works were commissioned in a period when I seemed to be working with composers virtually day and night.
 
An enterprising young London entrepreneur and impresario, Robert Slotover, who based his fledgling, ambitious, concert management on the emerging avant-garde of the time, generously funded a concert series entitled “The London Music Digest” and invited me to be its artistic director. Separate concerts were programmed, each involving a wide range of artists and instrumental ensembles devoted to the works of single composers. Barraqué, Boulez (who was then relatively new to London as the Music Director of the BBC Symphony Orchestra), Stockhausen, Berio, Bussotti, Brouwer, Xenakis and Takemitsu, formed the first series.
 
 

 

ROGER WOODWARD
 
 
 
Is it true that you won the International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition?
 
Absolutely not. It is sometimes regrettable what others publish on the Internet and elsewhere that is beyond one's reach until it is too late. Letters of protest seem to have made no difference in this case.
 
The only piano competitions I ever entered were in Holland and Australia, specifically to remain solvent and to fast-track concerts when I was beginning my journey. Even then, however, there seemed to be too many competitions in which many of the winners seemed to cultivate the same kind of predictable repertoire and cosmetic sound. At the time, I was sufficiently focused on existing musical relationships with which I had been blessed and was busy exploring generous performance opportunities that were on offer.
 
Who were some of the significant musical influences from your youth?
 
Musical influences were Kenneth Long (organist and choirmaster at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney), Fernando Germani (visiting Papal organist), Sir Eugene Goossens (resident conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Director of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music), and Alexander Sverjensky who was my piano teacher. In Poland, I worked with Witold Lutoslawski; the conductor, Witold Rowicki, with whom I toured extensively in the USA, and the violinist Wanda Wilkomirska.
 
Lina Prokofieva, befriended me when I was a student in Warsaw as well as Jorge Luis Herrero Dante. I learned as much, from this Cuban colleague in Warsaw as anybody else in those times. He was a brilliant pedagogue now living in Fort Lauderdale, U.S.A. My professor in Warsaw was officially Zbigniew Drzewiecki and his docent, Ryszard Bakst, who had been a Sofronitzky student. I learned from my colleagues, just as I learned from my students all my working life.
 
Through Drzewiecki, however, I came to know Fou T’song in London, where I also befriended the writer Arthur Hedley. Amongst others, I met Artur Rubinstein, Sviatoslav Richter, John Ogdon and Yehudi Menuhin.
 
Richter invited me to play in his Festival at Tours at the Grange de Meslay. I stayed for prolonged periods in Havana where I performed concerts of Leo Brouwer and Carlos Fariñas before moving to London, a city with which I fell in love and where I lived before moving to San Francisco. Not long after I moved to London, I began working with Zubin Mehta, Frank Zappa and Olivier Messiaen (in Los Angeles), but it was through Messiaen and his celebrated students, that my life took a completely new direction.
 
What have you sacrificed for your art?
 
Close family relationships, personal friendships and an established career, primarily as a result of standing up for human rights. A savage retribution was exacted over decades.
 
What piece of music might work as the soundtrack to your life?
 
J.S Bach’s Latin Mass in B minor
 
What are your ten desert-island discs?
 
Tricky. However, on the island I could not live without:
 
(1). John Eliot Gardiner directing the Monteverdi Vespers, L’Orfeo, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and the Bach Mass in B minor
(2). Nikolaus Harnoncourt directing The St Matthew Passion and Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt directing Bach Cantatas.
(3). Thurston Dart, George Malcolm and Wanda Landowska performing Bach’s keyboard suites and Goldberg Variations
(4). Erich Kleiber and Daniel Barenboim directing Beethoven
(5). Wilhelm Furtwängler directing Brahms and Wagner
(6). Sviatoslav Richter and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau performing Schubert, Schumann and Wolff
(7). Claudio Abbado and Zubin Mehta directing Xenakis
(8). Georg Tintner directing Schubert and Bruckner
(9). Leonard Bernstein directing Stravinsky
(10). Charles Munch and Christoph Eschenbach directing Debussy
 
… and although there wasn’t room to include Nikolai Korniev’s direction of the St. Petersburg Chamber Choir with their 1993 performance of the Rakhmaninov Vespers, I would had it been allowed.
 
What advice would you give to a young musician?
 
Work hard, but don’t forget to laugh. Be grateful for the support you receive. Have faith in yourself as well as in others. Be patient. Remain true to yourself. Make good and true friends. Try to avoid cliques. Quietly focus on your own projects while resisting too many temporal influences. Trust your instincts. Experiment. Help others. Listen to what others have to say. And, as Beethoven recommended, always take the best of advice in the rarest of cases.
 
What are your thoughts about the future?
 
Music is my life. It is an inspiration and joy to make music with others as well as to work with emerging artists and help them achieve their potential. Much of this was also dependent on a kind of old-fashioned philanthropy from which I was fortunate enough to benefit when I was an emerging artist.
 
As I look back to the collaboration with Robert Slotover and to the success of my first artistic directorship of “The London Music Digest”, I am filled with admiration and appreciation for the investment that was made at that time, and for all that happened.
 
This memorable collaboration paved the way for further artistic directorships, including a chamber music and recital series co-founded at Koetschach-Mauthen, Austria; Joie et Lumière in the Bourgogne for Lady Helen Hamlyn and (the late) Lord Paul Hamlyn, dedicated to the memory of Sviatoslav Richter; a conducting residency with the Adelaide Chamber Orchestra and a twelve-year stint with the Sydney Spring, which was an annual contemporary music series that I founded at the same time as the Alpha Centauri Ensemble - a thirty-six piece new-music ensemble that I toured abroad. The ensemble’s recording of Xenakis’ Kraanerg and the twenty-six performances of this masterwork at the Sydney Opera House was a collaboration that is difficult to forget.
 
The generosity of visionaries such as Helen and Paul Hamlyn and the miracle they created for young artists through the Hamlyn Trust turned out to be very important for the future of the profession. Isla Baring has also opened many doors for young people through her valuable initiative with The Tait Memorial Trust in London. There are other remarkable figures like Eckhart Rahn who, forty years ago, founded Celestial Harmonies. He invested in a unique series of recording projects developed over decades, in a similarly idealistic way. The risk is always colossal for individual investors, of course, and that kind of investment sometimes takes decades to recoup. Nevertheless, we need to continue to reach out to young people with tenderness, respect and care. As for planning, it is not as difficult as we sometimes imagine when one recalls Dostoyevsky who lifts our souls in reminding us that “it is beauty that will save the world”.
 
© Angela Boyd
San Francisco, January 2010
 

Related Links
www.rogerwoodward.com
www.harmonies.com (for record company Celestial Harmonies)
www.dischord.co.uk (Celestial Harmonies UK distributor).
 

ROGER WOODWARD DISCOGRAPHY
 
ABC CLASSICS
 
*WERDER 3RD Sonata (1969) (1969)
format: LP
item number: unknown
 
*MEALE CORUSCATIONS live from Sydney Opera House (1973)
format: LP
item number: unknown
 
*CONCERT FOR DARWIN live at the Sydney Opera House (1970)
Format: LP
item number: SMX44977-44980
Contents: Chopin Polonaise Op.44 No.5 in F Sharp Minor
 
*TAKEMITSU PIANO WORKS (1991)
format:CD
Item number: ABC446 739-2
contents:
Rain Tree Sketch, Les Yeux Clos, For Away, Litany, Piano Distance, Uninterrupted Rests and Corona & Crossing (live from Sydney Spring 1990)
 
*ROGER WOODWARD PLAYS PROKOFIEV (1991)
format: CD
item number: ABC426 806-2
contents: Sarcasms op.17, Prelude op.12 No.7, Suggestion Diabolique op.4 No.4, Visions Fugitives op.22, Four Etudes op.2, Visions Fugitives op.22, Children’s Suite op.65, Pensées op.62, Visions Fugitives op.22, Nocturne op.43 bis No.2, Gavotta op.32 No.3, Paysage op.59 No.2, March from L’amour des trois oranges op.33a
 
*SKRYABIN late piano works (1991-2)
format: CD
item number: ABC446 741-2
contents: 2 Danses op.73, 5 Preludes op.74, Vers la flamme op.72, Sonata No.10 op.70, 2 Poèmes op.71, 2 Poèmes op.69, 2 Preludes op.67, 2 Poèmes op.63, Poème-nocturne op.61, Sonata No.6 op.62 and 3 Etudes op.65
 
*SKRYABIN Piano Concerto Works for Solo Piano (1999)
format: CD (2CDs)
item number: ABC465 671-2
contents: 3 Pieces op.2, 2 Nocturnes op.5, 5 Preludes op.16, Piano Concerto in F-sharp minor op.20, 2 Poèmes op.32, Waltz in A-flat major op.38, 8 Etudes op.42, 3 Morceaux op.52, 2 Pieces op.57, Feuillet d’Album op.58, 2 Pièces op.59, 2 Danses op.73, Vers la flamme op.72, Sonata No.10 op.70, 2 Poèmes op.71, 2 Poèmes op.69, 2 Preludes op.67, 2 Poèmes op.63, Poème-nocturne op.61, Sonata No.6 op.62 and 3 Etudes op.65
 
*IMAGES OF DEBUSSY (1997)
format: CD
item number: ABC446 740-2
contents: L’Isle Joyeuse, Estampes, D’un cahier d’esquisses, Images I, Hommage à Haydn, Images II, La plus que lente, Page d’album and Children’s Corner
 
*DEBUSSY (1995)
format: CD
item number: ABC454 512-2
contents: Suite Bergamasque, Etudes Book I, Images (oubliées) and Etudes Book II
 
*DEBUSSY PIANO WORKS (2002 re-release)
format: CD (2CDs)
item number: ABC472 170-2
contents: L’Isle Joyeuse, Estampes, D’un cahier d’esquisses, Images I, Hommage à Haydn, Images II, La plus que lente, Page d’album, Children’s Corner, Suite Bergamasque, Etudes Book I, Images (oubliées) and Etudes Book II
 
*ANNE BOYD Meditations on a Chinese Character (1997)
format: CD
item number: ABC462 007-2
contents: Angklung
 
*SITSKY PIANO CONCERTO : The Twenty-Two Paths of the Tarot (1999)
format: CD
item number: ABC456 688-2
contents: Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1991, revised 1994) The Twenty-Two Paths of the Tarot
 
ARTWORKS
*LITTLE MASTERPIECES (1996)
format: CD
item number: AW001
contents: The Heather (Debussy), Song without Words (Mendelssohn), On wings of Song (Mendelssohn), Sonatina in G (Mozart), Waltz (Brahms), Intermezzo (Brahms),The Girl with Flaxen Hair (Debussy), The Swan (Saint-Saens), Rondo in C (Mozart), Minuet in C (Mozart), Minuet in D (Mozart), Minuet in G (Mozart), Arietta (Mozart), Arietta (Grieg), Woodland Peace (Grieg), Funeral March for a Marionette (Gounod), Scottish Dance (Beethoven), Minuet in G (Mozart), Minute in F (Mozart), German Dance (Schubert), Waltz (Schubert), Sentimental Waltz (Schubert), Salut d’amour (Elgar), Song without Words (Tchaikovsky), Sad Song (Tchaikovsky), Allegretto (Schubert), Notturno (Grieg) and Little Piece (Liszt)
 
*MOVING PICTURES solo piano music from the movies (1995)
format: CD
item number: AW002
contents: The Man from Snowy River (Jessica’s Theme), Howard’s End (Bridal Lullaby), Dr Zhivago (Lara’s Theme), Dr Zhivago (Main Theme), Limelight ("The Terry” Theme), A Town Like Alice (Main Theme), The Goldwin Follies (Love Walked In), Diva (Sentimental Walk), Love Story (Main Theme), The Piano (Big My Secret),The Godfather (Love Theme), Missing (Main Theme), Romeo And Juliet (Love Theme), Picnic At Hanging Rock (Ascent Music), The Man from Snowy River II (Main Theme), The Man from Snowy River II (Now Do We Fight Them), The Man from Snowy River II (Jessica’s Sonata II), The Man from Snowy River II (By The Fire Side), Heavenly Creatures (Pauline and Juliet), The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith (Main Theme) and Exodus (Main Theme)
 
*LULLABY (1997)
format: CD
item number: AW004
contents: Lullaby (Brahms),Lullaby (Sibelius), Lullaby (Ilynsky), Lullaby (Grieg), Waltz (Brahms), The Dream Castle (Hutchens), Evening (Hutchens), Lullaby (Hill), Lullaby (Faure), Lullaby (Cui), Daydreams (Borodin), Nocturne (Borodin), Daydreams (MacDowell), Lullaby (Fuchs), Lullaby (Suk), Lullaby for sleeping children (Suk), Finnish lullaby (Palmgren), Lullaby (Agnew), Morning Prayer (Tchaikovsky), Lullaby (Tchaikovsky), Waltz (Tchaikovsky), Melody (Schumann), Evening (Schumann), Little Lullaby (Schumann), Lullaby (Hutchens), Forest Echoes (Hyde), Lonely Trees (Hyde), The Quiet Meadow (Hyde)and Lullaby (Gehlhaar)
 
* CINEMA PARADISO (1996)
format: CD (TAPE)
item number: AW008 (AW4008 (TAPE))
contents: Phar Lap (Main Theme), Cinema Paradiso (Main theme), Reilly, Ace of Spies (Main Theme), Casablanca (As Time Goes By), Schindler’s list (Main Theme), East of Eden (Main Theme), The Man from Snowy River (Jessica’s Sonata), The Man from Snowy River (Rosemary Recalls), The Man from Snowy River (Tom fool’s Knot), A King in New York (Mandolin serenade), A King in New York (The Spring Song), A King in New York (Now That It’s Ended), The great Dictator (Falling Star), The Untouchables (Al Capone), The Untouchables (Ness And His Family), The Untouchables (Death Theme), The Pink Panther Strikes Again (The Inspector Clouseau Theme), The Thorn Birds (Main Theme), The Third Man (The Harry Lime Theme), The Third Man (The Cafe Mozart Waltz), Dr Zhivago (Tonya), The Winds of War (Love Theme), The Chronicles of Narnia (Aslan’s Theme), The Godfather 2 (Main Theme), The Godfather (The Godfather Waltz) and Pinocchio (When You Wish Upon A Star) {Bonus Tracks only on TAPE: Schindler’s List (Stolen memories), The Man from Snowy River 2 (Back to The Mountains)
 
CINEMA , Classics from the Silver Screen (1998)
solo piano music from the movies – Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Debussy Suk.
 
*ROGER WOODWARD PLAYS CHOPIN
(1998, live performance Sydney Opera House 1997)
format: CD
Item number: AW012
contents: Nocturnes op.9 No.1 No.2 and No.3, Waltz op.64 No.2, Waltz op.32 No.2, Mazurka op.17 No.4, Mazurka op.63 No.3, Mazurka op.30 No. 4, Mazurka op.56 No.2 and No.3, Mazurka op.68 No.4, Mazurka op.24 no.4, Etude op.25 No.1 No.2 No.6 and No.7, Polonaise op.40 No.1
 
*THE ESSENTIAL ALBUM (1998)
format: CD (2CDs)
item number: AW015
contents: 18th Variation (Rachmaninov), Dr Zhivago (Lara’s Theme), Dr Zhivago (Tonya’s Theme) Dr Zhivago (Main Theme), Diva (Sentimental Walk), Romeo and Juliet (Love Theme), The Man from Snowy River (Jessica’s Theme), The Man from Snowy River (Jessica’s Sonata), Schindler’s List (Main Theme), Exodus (Main Theme), The Godfather (Love Theme), The Godfather (The Godfather Waltz), The Godfather 2 (Main theme), Phar Lap (Main Theme), A Town Like Alice (Main Theme), The Thorn Birds (main theme), Howard’s End (Bridal Lullaby), The Piano (My Big secret), Love Story (Main Theme), East of Eden (Main theme), Cinema Paradiso (Main theme); Reilly, Ace of Spies (Main Theme), Casablanca (As Time Goes By), A King in New York ( Mandolin Serenade), Pinocchio (When You Wish Upon A Star), Shepherd’s Hey (Grainger), Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (Bach), Evening (Prokofiev), The Quiet garden (Benjamin), The Entertainer (Joplin), Fur Elise (Beethoven), “Raindrop” Prelude (Chopin), From Foreign Lands And People (Schumann), Dreaming (Schumann), “Minute” Waltz (Chopin), Waltz op.70 No.2 (Chopin), Prelude op.28 No.7 No.20 (Chopin), “Moonlight” Sonata 1st movement (Beethoven), Prelude in C major (Bach), The Swan (Saint-Saens), On Wings of Song (Mendelssohn), Salut d’amour (Elgar), Sonata in A major 1st movement (Mozart), Lullaby (Bercuse) (Chopin), Prelude op.28 No.4 No.6 (Chopin), The Girl With Flaxen Hair (Debussy), Sounds and Perfumes Swirl In The Evening Air (Debussy), General Lavine-Eccentric (Debussy), The Terrace For Moonlight Audiences (Debussy), Evening in Transylvania (Bartók), Arietta (Grieg) and Lullaby (Schubert)
 
*RONDO ALLA TURCA
format: CD
item number: AW021
contents: Impromptu No.1 (Chopin), Waltz op.69 No.1 (Chopin), Fantasie Impromptu (Chopin), Waltz op.69 No.2 (Chopin), Nocturn op.15 No.1 (Chopin), Rondo Alla Turca (Mozart), Liebestraum No.3 (Liszt), Consolation No.1 (Liszt), Reverie (Debussy), Song Without Words (Mendelssohn), Idyll (Suk) and Impromptu No.3 No.4 (Schubert)
 
BMG
*CLAIR DE LUNE (1989)
format: CD
item number: SPCD1198
contents: Clair de Lune (Debussy), The Girl with the Flaxen Hair (Debussy), Golliwog’s Cakewalk (Debussy); Romance op.28 no 2 (Schumann); The Prophet Bird, op.82 no.7 (Schumann); Arabesque op 18 (Schumann); Devotion (Schumann-Liszt); Berceuse op.4 No.5 (Sibelius), Romance op.24 No.9 (Sibelius), To the Spring (Grieg), Blithe Bells (Bach-Grainger), The Lover and the Nightingale (Granados), Mazurka in B flat op.7 No.1 (Chopin), Mazurka in A minor op.7 No.2 (Chopin), Nocturne in E flat op.9 No.2 (Chopin), Waltz in A flat op.69 No.1 (Chopin), The Old Minuet (Paderewski), Troika Ride (November) op.37a (Tchaikowsky), Prelude in C sharp minor op.3 No.2 (Rachmaninov).
 
CELESTIAL HARMONIES
FRYDERYK CHOPIN, The Complete Nocturnes (2006)
Format CD, Item Number 14260-2 (double CD) Disc 1 58’17”; Disc 2 65’55”
Producer/Engineer, Ulrich Kraus, Munich
http://www.harmonies.com
 
HANS OTTE, Released July 2007
13259-2 Stundenbuch/ Book of Hours - Composed by Hans Otte
http://www.blacksun.com/releases/13259.htm
 
PETER MICHAEL HAMEL, Released July 2007
13256-2 Vom Klang Des Lebens / Of the Sounds of Life - Composed by Peter Michael Hamel
http://www.blacksun.com/releases/13256.htm
 
BACH, Released September 2007
13280-2 Johann Sebastian BACH: Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue BWV 903, Partita No. 2 BWV 826, Partita No. 6 BWV 830
http://www.blacksun.com/releases/13280.htm
 
COL LEGNO
*20 ANS DE MUSIQUE CONTEMPORAINE A METZ
format: CD (5CDs)
item number: AU31 8 30CD
contents: FELDMAN Piano Concerto (live with Hans Zender and Saarbrucken Rundfunksorchester)
 
*20 ANS DE MUSIQUE CONTEMPORAINE A METZ
format: CD
item number: AU31 8 31CD (Separate form as AU31 8 30CD)
contents: FELDMAN Piano Concerto (live with Hans Zender and Saarbrucken Rundfunksorchester)
 
*FELDMAN ORCHESTRAL WORKS AND CHAMBER MUSIC
item number: WWE 1CD 20506 (re-release as AU31 8 30CD)
contents: FELDMAN Piano Concerto (live with Hans Zender and Saarbrucken Rundfunksorchester)
 
CPO
*MORTON FELDMAN (Hans Zender Edition) (1978)
format: CD
item number: CPO 999 483-2 (same contents as Col Legno)
contents: FELDMAN Piano Concerto - World Premiere (live with Hans Zender and Saarbrucken Rundfunksorchester)
 
DECCA
* TAKEMITSU PIANO WORKS (1974)
format: LP
item number: HEAD4
contents: Corona (London version), Far Away, Piano Distance, Uninterrupted Rests
 
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON
*WIEN MODERN III (1995)
format: CD
item number: 447 115-2
contents: Xenakis Keqrops (Wien Modern with Claudio Abbado recorded live at Wiener Konzerthaus 1995)
 
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON (AUSTRALIA)
*THE COLOUR OF AUSTRALIAN CLASSICS
format: CD (2CDS)
item number: 441 969-2
contents: Xenakis Keqrops (Wien Modern with Claudio Abbado recorded live at Wiener Konzerthaus 1995)
 
EMI
*CHOPIN PIANO WORKS (1970)
format: LP
item number: OASD7560
contents: Etudes op.10 (complete), Nocturne op.27 No.2, Polonaise Fantasie op.61
 
*RACHMANINOV PRELUDES (1970) (re-release on CD 1974)
format: LP
item number: OASD7561
contents: Prelude G Sharp minor op.32 No.12, Prelude C Sharp minor op.3 No.1, Prelude B Flat minor op.32 No.2, Prelude B minor op.32 No.10, Prelude F minor op.32 No.6, Prelude D major op.23 No.4, Prelude A major op.32 No.9, Prelude F Sharp minor op.23 No.1, Prelude G minor op.23 No.5, Prelude C minor op.23 No.7
 
*SKRYABIN PROKOFIEV SHOSTAKOVICH (1970)
format: LP
item number: OASD7562
contents: Etude in C Sharp minor, Op.2 No.1 (Scriabin), Etude in B Flat minor, Op.8 No.11 (Scriabin), Piano Sonata No.10 (Scriabin), Prelude and Fugue in D Flat No.15 (Shostakovich), Piano Sonata No.7 (Prokofiev)
 
*ROGER WOODWARD PLAYS CHOPIN (1972)
format: LP
item number: HQS1303
contents: Polonaise in F Sharp minor op.44, Allegro de Concert op.46, , Barcarolle op.60, Mazurkas op.68 No.1-3, Mazurkas op.posth.
 
*AUSTRALIAN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC Meale/Sculthorpe/Edwards (1970)
format: LP
item number: OASD7567
contents: Coruscations (Meale), Sonatina (Sculthorpe), Monos II (Edwards), Snow, Moon and Flowers (Sculthorpe), Night (Sculthorpe), Landscape (Sculthorpe)
 
*THE LONDON MUSIC DIGEST FROM THE ROUND HOUSE (1972)
format: LP (2LPs)
item number: EMSP551
contents: Sonate (Barraqué), Pour Clavier (apres ‘Pieces de Chair II’) (Bussotti), Per Tre sul Piano (Bussotti), Sonata Pian’e Forte, For Tape, Piano and Percussion (Brouwer)
 
*CONYNGHAM (1982)
format: LP
Item number: OASD 27 0403
contents: Southern Cross, Double Concerto for Violin and Piano (with Wanda Wilkomirska and Sydney Symphony Orchestra live from Sydney Opera House)
 
ETCETERA
*XENAKIS (1998) (re-release 1999)
format: CD
item number: KTC1075
contents:
Kraanerg (Roger Woodward conducting Alpha Centauri Ensemble live from Sydney Opera House)
 
*TAKEMITSU PIANO WORKS (1990)
format:CD
item number: KTC1103
contents: Rain Tree Sketch, Les Yeux Clos, Far Away, Litany, Piano Distance, Uninterrupted Rests and Corona & Crossing (live from Sydney Spring 1990)
 
*FELDMAN (1990)
format:CD
item number: KTC2015
contents: Triadic Memories, Piano, Two Pianos, Piano Four Hands and Piano Three Hands (with Ralph Lane)
 
*GEHLHAAR DIAGONAL FLYING (with Rolf Gehlhaar - Sound Space) (1990-91)
format: CD
item number: KTC1127
contents: Diagonal Flying (with Rolf Gehlhaar - Sound Space) (Recorded live at Sydney Spring International Festival of New Music)
 
*SKRYABIN LATE PIANO WORKS (1991)
format: CD
Item number: KTC1126
contents: 2 Danses op.73, 5 Preludes op.74, Vers la flamme op.72, Sonata No.10 op.70, 2 Poèmes op.71, 2 Poèmes op.69, 2 Preludes op.67, 2 Poèmes op.63, Poème-nocturne op.61, Sonata No.6 op.62 and 3 Etudes op.65
 
FOGHORN CLASSICS
fragments, vol.1
Shostakovich String Quartets
Shostakovich Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op57
3 CD set, total playing time 74’58”; 74’1”; 73’42”
Producer and Engineer Judith Sherman,
Recorded at the American Academy of Arts & Letters, 2005
 
J&B
*SOLO (1988)
favourites by Bach/Beethoven/Chopin/Grieg /Liszt/Mozart/Tchaikovsky/etc
format: CD and LP
item number: unknown (CD), JB260 (LP)
contents:
Gymnopédie No.1 (from 3 Gymnopédies) (Satie), Tango Op.165 No.2 from España (Albeniz), Bagatelle A minor (1809) (“Fur Elise”) (Beethoven), Minuet in G Major (Beethoven), Nocturne D Flat Major Op.27 No.2 (Chopin), Etude E major Op.10 No.7 (Deep is the Night), Etude C Minor op.10 No.12 (Revolutionary), Fantasie-Impromptu C Sharp Minor Op.66 (Chopin), Gigue for the Fifth French Suite in G Major (J. S. Bach), 1st Movement (Allegro) from C major Sonata K.545 (W. A. Mozart), Rondo Alla Turca from A major Sonata K.331 (W. A. Mozart), March from the Opera “The Love for Three Oranges” (Prokofiev), Russian Dance from Children’s Album op.39 (Tchaikovsky), Waltz in D Flat Op.61 No.1 (The Minute) (Chopin), Prelude A Major Op.28 No.7 (Les Sylphides), Liebestraum No.3 in A Flat Major (Liszt), Malaguena (from the Spanish Suite) (Lecuona), Wedding Day at Troldhaugen (Grieg)
 
*MUSIC OF THE NIGHT (1990)
popular themes from films and musicals
format: CD and LP
item number: unknown (CD), JB425 (LP)
contents: Music Of The Night (Prelude) (Phantom of the Opera), All I Ask (Phantom of the Opera), Memory (Cats), Endless Love (Jesus Christ Superstar), I Don’t Know How To Love Him (Jesus Christ Superstar), Jessica’s Theme (The Man From Snowy River), The Timeless land (The Snowman), Walking In The Air (The Snowman), Don’t Cry For Me Argentina (Evita), As Time Goes By (Casablanca), Chariots Of Fire (An Officer & A Gentleman), Up Where We Belong (An Officer & A Gentleman), All Creatures Great And Small (Sesame Street), Rainbow Connection (Sesame Street), Six Ribbons (Beaches), Wind Beneath My wings (Beaches), Bring Him Home (Les Miserables), On Golden Pond (Phantom of the Opera), Imagine (Phantom of the Opera), Music Of The Night (Phantom of the Opera)
 
LONDON (JAPAN)
* TAKEMITSU PIANO WORKS
format: CD
item number: POCL-2347 (Re-release CD: POCL-3998 and UCCD-3131)
contents: Corona (London version), Far Away, Piano Distance, Uninterrupted Rests
 
POLSKIE NAGRANIA
*SEROCKI Fantasmagoria (1976) (One of the series of the LP 20th International Festival of Contemporary Music Warsaw Autumn)
format: LP
item number: SX1444
contents: SEROCKI Fantasmagoria (1976)
 
RCA
 
*BEETHOVEN SONATAS op.57, op.111 (1973)
format: LP
item number: LRL1 5016
contents: BEETHOVEN Sonatas op.57, op.111
 
*BEETHOVEN SONATAS op.2 no.3; op.49 no.2; op.27 no.2 (1976)
format: LP
item number: LRL1 5097
contents: BEETHOVEN Sonatas op.2 no.3; op.49 no.2; op.27 no.2
 
*AUSTRALIA CONTEMPORARY MUSIC (1974)
Meale/Boyd/Sculthorpe/Bauld/Conyngham
format: LP
item number: VRL1-0083
contents: Orenda (Meale), Coruscations (Meale), Angklung (Boyd), Koto Music (Sculthorpe), Snowflake (Conyngham), Concert (Bauld)
 
*SHOSTAKOVICH Preludes & Fugues (1976)
format: LP (2LPs)
item number: LRL2 5100
contents: 24 Preludes and Fugues (complete)
 
*BEETHOVEN/LISZT EROICA SYMPHONY (1973)
format: LP
item number: RL25090
contents: BEETHOVEN/LISZT Eroica Symphony
 
*HODDINOTT 3RD CONCERTO (1976)
(with Hans-Hubert Schönzeler & Philharmonia Orchestra)
format: LP
item number: RL25082
contents: HODDINOTT 3rd Concerto
 
*BRAHMS 1ST CONCERTO (with Kurt Masur & Philharmonia Orchestra) (1976)
format: LP
item number: RL25031
contents: BRAHMS 1st Concerto
 
*SHOSTAKOVICH PIANO TRIO AND PIANO QUINTET (1978)
(with Edinburgh String Quartet)
format: LP
item number: RL25224
contents: Piano Quintet in G Minor op.57, Piano Trio No.2 in E Minor op.67
 
SIPARIO DISCHI
*NUOVE SINCRONIE 92
format: CD
item number: sin1012
contents: Donatoni Sincronie (with J. Scalfi (vc))
 
UNICORN
 
*BARRAQUÉ SONATE (re-release) (1978)
format: LP
item number: UNS263
contents: Sonate (Barraqué)
 
WARNER
 
*RUSTLE OF SPRING (1992)
format: CD
Item number: 90311774722
contents: I Got Rhythm (Gershwin), Fascinatin’ Rhythm (Gershwin), Oh, Lady be Good (Gershwin), Do it again (Gershwin), The man I love (Gershwin), Danny Boy (Grainger), Country Gardens (Grainger), Handel in the Strand (Grainger), Maple Leaf Rag (Joplin), Rustle of Spring (Sinding), Cradle Song (Grieg),
Once upon a time (Grieg), Little Troll (Grieg), Moment Musical (Schubert), Ständchen (R. Strauss), Spring song (Mendelssohn), Novelette (Schumann),
Scottish dances (Chopin), Intermezzo (Brahms), Waltz (Brahms), Polichinelle (Rachmaninov), Eighteenth Variation from Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini (Rachmaninov), Tango (Albeniz), Evening in Granada (Debussy), Arabesque (Debussy), Minstrels (Debussy), I want you - waltz (Satie), John Hector McFarlane and his mother (Gowers) and Forgotten Waltz (Liszt)
 
*THE MUSIC OF FREDERIC CHOPIN (1992) (re-released 1997)
format: CD
item number: 4509903182
contents: Valse brillante in A flat op.34 No.1, Waltz in F minor op.70 No.2, Waltz in A flat op.42, Berceuse in D flat op.57, Etude in A flat op.25 No.1, Etude in E op.10 No.3, Prelude in A op.28 No.7, Prelude in D flat op.28 No.15 “Raindrop”, Prelude in C minor op.28 No.20, Mazurka in A minor op.59 No.1, Mazurka in A flat op.59 No.2, Mazurka in F sharp minor op.59 No.3, Polonaise in A flat op.53, Prelude in E minor op.28 No.4, Prelude in B minor op.28 No.6, Waltz in D flat op.64 No.1 “Minute”, Waltz in C sharp minor op.64 No.2, Nocturne in F sharp op.15 No.2, Waltz in E minor (No.14) op.Posth, Waltz inG flat op.70 No.1 and Ballade in F minor op.52
 
*OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY (1994)
format: CD
item number: 4509971602
contents: Pleasant Landscape (Smetana), Scotch Strathspey and Reel (Grainger), Children’s March "Over the hills and far away" (Grainger), May-Night (Palmgren), Rumanian Folkdances (Bartok), Morning Mood (Peer Gynt) (Grieg), Norwegian Dance op.35 No.2 (Grieg), Gavotte (Holberg Suite) (Grieg), Homeland (Grieg), Solveig’s Song (Greig), Nocturne no.5 (Field), The Music Box (Liadov), Russian Dance op.40 No.10 (Tchaikovsky), Malaguena (Albeniz), The Banana Tree (Gottschalk), The Heart Asks Pleasure First (from the film ‘The Piano’) (Nyman), Gnossienne No.1 (Satie), Nene (Nazareth), Kismet Rag (Joplin), Three Rose Bay Quadrilles (Stanley), Three German Dances D.975 & D.974 (Schubert), Roses in the Midday Sun (Koechlin), Fur alina (Pärt) and Waltz D.844 (Schubert)
 
*MY FAVOURITE CLASSICS (1995)
format: CD
item number: 0630113862
contents: Fur Elise (Beethoven), Consolation No.3 (Liszt), From Foreign Lands and people (Schumann), Dreaming (Schumann), To A Wild Rose (MacDowell), Elves Dance (Grieg), “Moonlight” Sonata (1st. mvt.) (Beethoven), 18th Variation (Rachmaninov), Danny Boy (Grainger), The Man I Love (Gershwin), Moment Musical No.3 (Schubert), “Raindrop” Prelude (Chopin), “Minute” Waltz (Chopin), Venetian Gondola Song (Mendelssohn), Clair de Lune (Debussy), Schindler’s List-theme (Williams), Anna Magdalena Notebook (excerpts) (Bach), Gavotte (Bach), The Little Negro (Debussy), Reverie (Tchaikovsky), Gymnopédie No.1 (Satie), Scottish Dances (Chopin), Spring Song (Mendelssohn), Handel in the Strand (Grainger), Country Gardens (Grainger) and Cradle Song (Grieg)
 
KURTUR (VTR)
 
*The Tchaikovsky 150th Anniversary Concert From China
(with Tan Lihua & Symphony Orchestra of the Central Philharmonic, Beijing)
Format: DVD
Item number: D4000
Contents: Piano Concerto No.1 in B Flat Minor op.23 (Tchaikovsky)