ABOUT THE MUSIC

Marián Budoš

Welcome to the Show (2024)

AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE

The newly composed Welcome to the Show! by Canberra based composer and guitarist Marián Budoš, is intentionally written for the brothers to open concerts in a quasi-rock-show style ala David Bowie (Ziggy’s namesake). The piece incorporates ‘rock-style pizzicato’, as well as catchy melodic riffs that fuse the modern classical and rock influences seamlessly.

Program Note © Marián Budoš

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Nigel Westlake

Mosstrooper Peak (2011) 

1) Burning Point

2) Mosstrooper Peak

3) Nara Inlet

4) Tangalooma

5) Butterfly Bay

6) Smokey Cape

Each movement is named after a remote location on the east coast of Australia, places that hold a special meaning for me and that were visited during a huge time of upheaval in my life. They are locations of repose and meditation, and upon each site stands a shrine to the memory of my son Eli. The work begins very tentatively, reflecting as it does the building of the first shrine at Burning Point. On a pristine white beach, in the twilight of a magical tropical sunset, a family gathers shells & small flowers. In silence they arrange their offerings around a small photo of the departed, lighting incense & candles, which burn late into the night. Thus begins a practice of remembrance that will become a daily ritual over the coming months. On each occasion the shrines will become larger and more elaborate, and the places upon which they are built will become more remote & precarious. They are located within caves and crevices amongst peaceful inlets, tidal estuaries, coral beaches, and on rocky ridges upon the tropical islands overlooking the fringing reefs and deep blue waters of the Great Barrier Reef. Some of the shrines will be washed away by peak tides and cyclones, others will stand for hundreds of years. The music is sometimes reflective, as is the case for the movements Burning Point, Nara Inlet & Butterfly Bay, and at other times more extrovert, invoking a sense of energy & movement, as if marking the journey to these remote locations, a process that sometimes involved several hours of challenging bush walking through tropical rainforest and dry creek beds and the scaling of treacherous mountain peaks.

Program Note © Nigel Westlake

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Shelbie Rassler

Notice the Ripples (2022) 

AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE 

American composer, conductor and producer, Shelbie Rassler, rose to global acclaim for her compositions and viral social impact music videos supporting those affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Her commission for Ziggy and Miles, Notice the Ripples, is a musical retelling of a poem by the same name by Robert Longley (below). Each section of the piece depicts a different stanza of the poem.

It’s just a subtle movement
Where water kisses air
I only have to close my eyes
And instantly I’m there

Some days its pure reflection
A surface just like glass
A brief and special moment
That all too soon will pass

Other days the winds are strong
The water comes alive
I’m happy just to sit and watch
And know it’s worth the drive

Know it’s always changing
But the ingredients are the same
The wind and water together
Almost seem to call your name

Program Note © Shelbie Rassler

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Radamés Gnattali

Suite Retratos (1965)

1) Pixinguinha (Choro)

2) Ernesto Nazareth (Valse)

3) Anacleto de Medeiros (Schottisch)

4) Chiquinha Gonzaga (Corta-jaca)

It was to the Assad duo that the Suite Retratos of Radamés Gnattali (1906-1988) was dedicated. The son of an Italian anarchist pianist who gave him a name which evoked Verdi (his sister’s and brother’s names were Aida and Ernani respectively), Gnattali studied at the Porto Alegre Conservatoire and made his debut as a composer in 1930, when his Rapsódia Brasileira for piano was presented at Rio de Janeiro. In addition to classical music, Gnattali very soon began to dedicate himself actively to the diffusion of popular music in the role of arranger, conductor, pianist, violinist and composer.

The Suite Retratos, probably his best known work, has a rather complicated history. The composer began to work on it in 1956, in a version for bandolim (a sort of Brazilian mandolin) and strings dedicated to Jacob Pick Bittencourt. Years later, in 1979, Gnattali arranged the part for strings for a “conjunto”, a group composed of three guitars, cavaquinho and pandeiro. A third version, adapted for the mandolin player Joel Nascimento and his group, the Camerata Carioca, dates from 1979; shortly afterwards, in chronological order, the adaptation for two guitars made its appearance: it was dedicated to the Assad duo. The four movements of the Suite are portraits of four fathers of Brazilian music, whose name they bear: with a procedure of stylistic assimilation, Gnattali aimed to recreate their idiom. 

Alfredo da Rocha Vianna (1897-1973), whose nickname was “Pixinguinha”, was one of the greatest composers of choro of all times (it is he who wrote the celebrated Carinhoso, which inspired the retrato). The second movement has various affinities, above all in the alternation of moderato and more mosso sections, with the waltz Expansiva by Ernesto Nazareth (1863-1934); the third, Anacleto de Medeiros, faithfully reproduces the opening bars of the “schottisch” Três Estrelinhas by Anacleto de Medeiros (1866-1907). The fourth and last movement deserves a little more explanation. Francisca Edwiges Neves Gonzaga, known as “Chiquinha” (1847-1935), the natural daughter of a wealthy military man, was brought up according to the dictates of high society in the reign of the Emperor Pedro II, and grew up listening to polkas, maxixes, waltzes and modinhas, which nourished her very precocious musical talent. A marriage which ended when she was still young contributed decisively to her move towards composition – a difficult enterprise for a woman, in the Rio of the second half of the nineteenth century. Through her tenacity and talent, Chiquinha succeeded in entering, and gaining the respect of, the musical circles of the city and came into contact with the main local chorões (groups of musicians). In 1885 she debuted as orchestral conductor in an operetta, and in the following years her popularity, as a conductor and composer, steadily increased. Chiquinha Gonzaga, whose catalogue consists of almost three hundred titles, personally led the battle for the recognition of copyright for Brazilian artists, contributing decisively – in 1917 – to the foundation of the Sociedade Brasileira de Autores Teatrais (SBAT).

Corta-jaca, a sort of peasant dance, was composed by her in 1895 with the original title Gaúcho for the operetta Zizinha Maxixe. Also classified as “tango brasileiro” or “maxixe” (a dance considered to be rather improper), the piece scandalized Brazilian audiences for more than twenty years owing to the presumed licentiousness conveyed by the movements of the dance. At the turn of the twentieth century, it was renamed Corta-jaca and given words designed to be sung. Its popularity over the years was undimmed, so much so that in 1919 Darius Milhaud used an entire section of it for his ballet Le boeuf sur le toit. The reworking by Gnattali, who cites the original to the letter in the minor key section, restores to us a lively and authentically popular dance, characterized by continual repetitions of long sections with a syncopated rhythm.

Program Note © Lorenzo Micheli

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

“Australian guitarist brothers making history” (The Age), Ziggy and Miles are two of their home country’s finest young musicians forging an international career. Their performances are known for their “deeply considered musicianship, immaculate care and superlative technique” (5MBS). Winners of the 2023 YCA (Young Concert Artists) Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, the brothers have become the first guitar duo and second guitarists to receive this prestigious award in the organisation’s 63-year history.

Ziggy and Miles’ long-awaited new album, Sidekick, featured as one of WQXR’s (New York’s classical music radio station) “Best New Classical Albums of 2023”. Praised by Soundboard Magazine as “[played] with perfect unanimity and admirable virtuosity”, it showcases new works written for the brothers, their own “transfixingly beautiful” (Limelight) arrangement of Debussy’s Clair de Lune, and works that have shaped their musical identity from Spain, Latin America, and Australia. The title track “Sidekick” is a character piece written for the brothers by award winning composer Katie Jenkins that ties this theme together. In Jenkins’ own words, “They make fun of each other but need each other, they compete with one another but are stronger together.”

With over 50 awards between them in guitar competitions and local music Eisteddfods across their home city of Melbourne, Ziggy and Miles proved their artistry as soloists and a duo from a young age. A selection of their early accolades includes major prizes in competitions hosted by the Guitar Foundation of America, the Adelaide International Guitar Festival, and the Melbourne Recital Center. Self-released in 2014, their debut album, Recollections, served as both a tribute to the music that inspired the brothers growing up, and as their first professional milestone to look back upon and ‘recollect’.

Ziggy and Miles are actively involved in community engagement and have a passion for providing education and music to people without access to live performances or high-quality music education. They have collaborated with organisations across Australia and the US including Melbourne Recital Centre, The Juilliard School, and Project: Music Heals Us. One highlight for the brothers was their Music Always tour, partnered with Melbourne Recital Centre. This 2-week 12-concert tour saw the brothers travelling across their home state of Victoria to aged care facilities, community centres, medical facilities, and psychiatric wards. Ziggy and Miles regard this as one of their most emotionally challenging yet rewarding experiences as musicians to date.

Graduates of The Juilliard School, Ziggy and Miles were the first Australians and first guitar duo accepted into the school’s prestigious Artist Diploma program, where they also received the Norman Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant. They studied under Multiple Grammy Winner, Sharon Isbin, who has shaped and inspired their artistic identities. During both their master’s and Artist Diploma at Juilliard, the brothers received distinguished awards to assist their studies from Australian Foundations, including the American Australia Association, Ian Potter Cultural Trust, and Phonographic Performance Company of Australia.

Ziggy and Miles play guitars by Australian luthier Jim Redgate and play Savarez strings.

They are managed internationally by Young Concert Artists.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF SUPPORT

With thanks to Kawai Australia for their incredibly generous support. 

Brisbane Music Festival is assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body.

Brisbane Music Festival receives funds from Creative Partnership Australia through the Australian Cultural Fund.
With thanks to the many generous individuals that have supported the 2023 Brisbane Music Festival.

BMF TEAM

Max Shearer | Front of House / Operations Assistant.

Special thanks to Lynne/Graeme Cannell and Michele/Aldo Raineri, without whom the BMF would not function!