Today is the day!!!! I am so proud to have released my first album, Dulcie Holland Crescent, on all streaming services today. It's taken a LOT of work to get here...
Listen to the album on your choice of streaming service!
And read the liner notes to go with the album on this blog post!
[Photo and graphics by Rowan Davie]
I fell down the rabbit hole a couple years ago when I started learning Dulcie's Sonata for Piano - said to be one of, if not, her best work. There is something so sophisticated and alluring about the piece. Perhaps I was so invested in it because of its obscurity - at the time, there were no publicly available recordings. Instead, you took a visit to one of a handful of libraries/catalogues in Australia that actually had a copy. But this is not how we listen to music - especially in the 21st century. One thing led to another and I eventually did an entire research project on solo piano music of Dulcie Holland with one aim: to record an album free for the public and made easily accessible.
[Me at the National Library of Australia with the collection of Dulcie Holland's manuscripts and scores in August 2020]
I think this album is a great summary of Dulcie's piano writing. What's most is exciting is that two of the pieces, Conversation for Piano and Autumn Piece, were unpublished works existing only in Dulcie's original manuscript. I transcribed these works myself to produce what is (probably - though can't be confirmed) the first performances of them. Of the 12 individual tracks, 7 are world premiere recordings.
[Llewellyn Hall where Dulcie Holland Crescent was recorded with Craig Greening, audio engineer in February 2021]
It was upsetting that such a great work (and legacy, in general) was being neglected and forgotten. I probably got so involved in Dulcie's music because as someone with compositional and musical aspirations myself, my greatest wish is that I have a legacy that continues on when my time is up. So to see someone worthy of such a great legacy be neglected was saddening - but fixable!
[At Dulcie Holland Crescent itself in Moncrieff, ACT, with Rowan Davie, photographer, and our friend Nicola on Canberra Day, March 2021]
[The ANU School of Music Recording Studio where Craig edited the album in April 2021]
I'm so grateful for media attention this project has been receiving: I appeared on Fine Music Sydney this morning for a breakfast radio interview, and Limelight have written an article about the album. There are more but I am a little bit fried and can't remember at the moment. Do keep an eye out because there are more articles coming out and a review or two later on!
[Me with Julie Simonds of 2MBS Fine Music Sydney for an interview on the album's release in June 2021]
[Front page(!) of Limelight Magazine for the article on my album in June 2021]
I have so many people to thank - but I won't express my gratitude here because I've already done it in my liner notes and also many, many times to those who helped me along the way.
GO LISTEN! And if you're a pianist, maybe consider learning your favourite from the album xx
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