BIDDINGTON Music from Torrens Road: Orchestral Works
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Genre:
Orchestral
Label: Navona
Magazine Review Date: 07/2022
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 65
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: NV6420
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Classical Overture |
Eric Biddington, Composer
Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Rupert Bond, Conductor |
Eat Your Brekky (And You Will Grow Big and Strong) |
Eric Biddington, Composer
Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Rupert Bond, Conductor |
In Geraldine (Small Town Reflections) |
Eric Biddington, Composer
Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Rupert Bond, Conductor |
Sillybuggers |
Eric Biddington, Composer
Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Rupert Bond, Conductor |
Cats of Hillmorton |
Eric Biddington, Composer
Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Rupert Bond, Conductor |
Doctor Knows Best (For Anyone and Everyone) |
Eric Biddington, Composer
Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Rupert Bond, Conductor |
Homage to Bach |
Eric Biddington, Composer
Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Rupert Bond, Conductor |
Author: Guy Rickards
I am prepared to bet that New Zealand-born composer Eric Biddington (b1953) is as unknown to the majority of this magazine’s readership as his music – shown by the seven works collected here – is gentle in expression. The whimsical titles of his pieces give clues to his music’s nature overall as much as to the individual works themselves. The keen feline observation of Sillybuggers is a case in point, the premise of which all cat-owners will read and say ‘yes, that’s spot on!’
The ‘three impressions’ Cats of Hillmorton is similarly feline-themed, immortalising various cats of the composer’s acquaintance; the opening ‘Death of Straypuss’, with its allusions to the funeral march of Mahler’s First Symphony, is nicely drawn, culminating in nine glockenspiel chimes – one for each life. By contrast, the chamber sinfonia In Geraldine, Geraldine being a small town south of Christchurch, is a superficially charming portrait of small-town Antipodean life, with darker undertows that only break the surface in the delightfully chaotic (but gently so) finale, ‘Sports Day’. Eat Your Brekky (and you will grow big and strong) is light music, pure and simple, derived from the well-worn imperative to children.
No pioneer in sound or techniques, Biddington prefers to follow well-trodden compositional paths. The Mozartian Classical Overture and Homage to Bach, which bookend the programme, do not overdo the pastiche, while the nocturnal central panel of Cats of Hillmorton, titled ‘Creatures of the Night’, is arguably the most advanced music present, ‘largely written by Rupert Bond’ from an idea supplied by the composer. The gravest work – though it does not really sound so – is Doctor Knows Best (for Anyone and Everyone), its two halves inspired presumably by the final illness of the composer’s wife in 2020, when this and all the other works here were written. Does it expose Biddington’s expressive limitations or his essentially positive outlook? Navona’s nicely balanced sound presents the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra’s well-prepared, enjoyable performances in the pleasantest possible light.
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