On track: Lilburn pick stands test of time

For those who know Douglas Lilburn through his symphonies or electronic music, a new CD reveals another facet of the composer.

Volume nine of the Waiteata Collection of New Zealand Music has put together works which find Lilburn inspired by the words of our poets, from Denis Glover and James K. Baxter to Ruth Dallas and Keith Sinclair.

The 1952 Salutes to Seven Poets gives the album its title. We are offered an award-winning Radio New Zealand recording of the work, in a stylish performance by violinist Dean Major and pianist Rae de Lisle.

Lilburn does the narration that connects the musical tributes.

With his characteristic sibilants, he weighs his few words carefully, selecting certain key lines from each poet.

Fifty-four years on, his choices seem remarkably forward-looking for the time, as when he settles on the edgy dialogue between Maori chief and Pakeha settler in Keith Sinclair's Waitara.

Two sets of three songs apiece reveal how Lilburn's music advanced during the 1950s.

Three early settings of Ruth Dallas and Basil Dowling, with clear, sinewy piano writing, spring to vibrant life through the attractive tenor of Jose Aparicio, with his beguiling Spanish accent.

The 1958 Songs for Baritone and Viola are more forward looking. These are testy and testing, with jagged musical lines that suit the poetry.

Baritone Roger Wilson and violist Peter Barber acquit themselves in a musicianly manner, but theirs is a more interiorised and less engaging interpretation than that which Paul Whelan and Timothy Deighton deal out on Deighton's Viola Aotearoa CD (Atoll ACD 202).

What an unmitigated delight it is to have Lilburn's classic 1953 Sings Harry finally available on CD in not one, but two versions. (Lilburn first penned the set of songs for baritone and piano, and then rescored it for tenor and guitar).

With Roger Wilson and pianist Gillian Bibby, Denis Glover's back-country philosophies are bittersweet reflections.

When tenor Christopher Leech tackles the songs, with composer Dylan Lardelli on guitar, he seems to step right up, grab the ballads by their very neck, and deliver them with all the exuberance of youth. Truly, songs for all seasons.

* Douglas Lilburn: Salutes to Poets (Waiteata WTA 009). Available for $15 plus $2 postage through Waiteata Press, School of Music, Victoria University, PO Box 600, Wellington.