Zen, light and shade

Anticipation and excitement creep into John Elmsly's voice when he talks about the upcoming Autumn Festival mounted by the University of Auckland's Karlheinz Company. Instead of the customary May concert, there will be two events, a week apart.

The first focuses on Christchurch harpist Helen Webby, a musician known for her interest in the contemporary. "It's not every harp player that tackles this music," says Elmsly, going on to suggest that more composers should be exploring the instrument's unique combination of delicacy and sparkle.

As well as two solos by New Zealand composers Helen Bowater and Rachel Clement, Webby will be part of a trio premiering Infusing Zen by the talented young Jeff Lin. Last year, Lin's Exile from the Native Land, sung by tenor Michael Gray, was aired in an Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra concert featuring commissions that brought together young composers and NBR New Zealand Opera's emerging new singers.

As part of his doctoral studies with Elmsly and Eve de Castro-Robinson, Lin is presenting a "trio of trios" and Infusing Zen is one of them. The line-up of flute, viola and harp is familiar from works by Debussy and Takemitsu, not to mention de Castro-Robinson's a pink-lit phase and, although the elegant chiaroscuro of Lin's score is apparent even on paper, Elmsly stresses that a performance will reveal new beauties.

"Infusing Zen is based on a Chinese poem by Wang Wei, a much-admired Tang dynasty poet whose The Friend's Farewell was one of those poems which inspired Mahler for his Das Lied von der Erde," Elmsly explains.

"Jeff has devised a system for transforming the pronunciation of Mandarin into a harmonic language and the flow of the whole piece is his personal interpretation of the concept of Zen."

A week later, the second instalment of Karlheinz Company's Autumn Festival gathers together an attractive mix of the local and international. After Deng Liang's take-no-prisoners roar through a Boris Tishchenko Sonata at the last KC concert, the young pianist promises some star turns on the 16th, with a welcome chance to hear Eve de Castro-Robinson's Ring True and Stockhausen's Klavierstucke IX.

"It's one of the most approachable of the Stockhausen piano pieces," says Elmsly.

"It has some really attractive features like the repeated chords and the different colours that they bring up. I remember being struck by that piece way back in the 70s when one of the Kontarsky brothers played it in Wellington and it's been a favourite ever since."

To many, the German composer's particularly rigorous brand of avant-garde now seems rather dated. "Stockhausen was a great figure for everyone in that immediate post-war generation," is Elmsly's assessment. "He polarised the whole of contemporary music, a polarisation which has more or less disappeared now."

Yet perhaps the sheer stylistic diversity and openness of the current music scene can create new issues? "It's sometimes bewildering for students and teachers because there is no 'right' way to approach composing," Elmsly suggests. "It's a very free field and we have to select possibilities very carefully."

As for finding one's own style, he simply echoes the advice of the late David Farquhar. "David told us not to try too hard because it will come through eventually.

"Just follow what happens to be, what fascinates you at a particular time and compose."

FESTIVAL
What: Karlheinz Company Autumn Festival

Where and when: Auckland University Music Theatre, Sunday May 9 at 3pm; Sunday May 16 at 5pm