Composers' winner beats worthy competition

Christchurch composer Jack Body's 'My Name is Mok Bhon' won a Silver Scroll Award on Thursday night. Photo / Supplied

The composers who carry off the SOUNZ Contemporary Award, given at the annual APRA Silver Scroll Awards, will never attain the populist profile of the songwriters who take the Silver Scroll Award home with them.

Nevertheless, over 12 years, Gillian Whitehead, Eve de Castro-Robinson, Ross Harris and John Psathas have all been acknowledged with more than one trophy, while last year's ceremony gave the nod to the young, and comparatively unknown, Chris Gendall.

On Thursday night, in Christchurch, a 2009 winner was chosen from three finalists.

Jack Body's My Name is Mok Bhon is a piece that reminds us visually (with video footage) and musically (the NZSO weaving elegant oriental-tinged strands) of the dark days of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge.

Michael Norris's Volti is a frisky scherzo for piano and orchestra, the sheer ebullience of which makes you long to see the pianist in the act of coping with its very theatrical solo part.

Ross Harris' Symphony III is comparatively traditional; a 40-minute orchestral canvas that almost bewilders with its richness. This is a work fuelled by the images of Chagall and the sounds of klezmer, coalesced into a remarkable symphonic whole.

Perhaps it was predictable that Harris would carry off the prize this year, his fourth since it was inaugurated in 1998 but, despite very worthy competition, it was more than deserved.

And, although Wellington has been quick to bask in the latest glories of one of its distinguished sons, Aucklanders, too, have reason for pride. If Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, an organisation which has always shown unswerving devotion for the music of our composers, had not commissioned the Symphony and premiered it last year, this score might not have been written.