Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Translated as ‘rusty sheets’, Lyell Cresswell’s 2000 work ‘Fogli Rugginosi’ augments the traditional wind quintet by adding in cello and double bass. This work title is most likely a play on words, referring to red-coloured sheets of fabric, sheets of iron, and the sheets of music from which the musicians read. This performance from Stroma was in dedication to Lyell Cresswell, a giant of New Zealand composition, in the year following his passing away in 2022.
Plotted out in alternating fast and slow movements, the work contrasts skittish chromatic passages against more plaintive lyrical writing. ‘Fuggente’ (fleeting) alternates between small fragmented material in the winds and larger dramatic gestures. The flute and oboe take centre stage in the second movement, ‘Calmo’, producing long, expressive lines that soar above the rest of the ensemble. A brief interlude of Cresswell’s roaring setting of labour movement song ‘Avanti Popolo’ is followed by the tentative and fragmented ‘Pensoso’. The work concludes with ‘Frenetico’, an intense dash to the end featuring increasingly frantic material from the full ensemble.
00:26 1. Fuggente
02:19 2. Calmo
06:30 3. Ruggente - Avanti Popolo
07:23 4. Pensoso
09:47 5. Frenetico
Performed by Stroma: Bridget Douglas (flute), Robert Orr (oboe), Ellen Deverall (clarinet), Justin Sun (bassoon), Sam Jacobs (horn), Ken Ichinose (cello), Sasha Gunchenko (double bass) and Hamish McKeich (conductor) at Public Trust Hall, 31 August 2023. Audio recorded by Phil Brownlee. Filmed and edited by Chris Watson for SOUNZ. Film funded by NZ On Air.
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Further information about the composer biographies associated with these films can be discovered at sounz.org.nz
Facebook: @SOUNZnz
Instagram: @sounz_nz
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Translated as ‘rusty sheets’, Lyell Cresswell’s 2000 work ‘Fogli Rugginosi’ augments the traditional wind quintet by adding in cello and double bass. This work title is most likely a play on words, referring to red-coloured sheets of fabric, sheets of iron, and the sheets of music from which the musicians read. This performance from Stroma was in dedication to Lyell Cresswell, a giant of New Zealand composition, in the year following his passing away in 2022.
Plotted out in alternating fast and slow movements, the work contrasts skittish chromatic passages against more plaintive lyrical writing. ‘Fuggente’ (fleeting) alternates between small fragmented material in the winds and larger dramatic gestures. The flute and oboe take centre stage in the second movement, ‘Calmo’, producing long, expressive lines that soar above the rest of the ensemble. A brief interlude of Cresswell’s roaring setting of labour movement song ‘Avanti Popolo’ is followed by the tentative and fragmented ‘Pensoso’. The work concludes with ‘Frenetico’, an intense dash to the end featuring increasingly frantic material from the full ensemble.
00:26 1. Fuggente
02:19 2. Calmo
06:30 3. Ruggente - Avanti Popolo
07:23 4. Pensoso
09:47 5. Frenetico
Performed by Stroma: Bridget Douglas (flute), Robert Orr (oboe), Ellen Deverall (clarinet), Justin Sun (bassoon), Sam Jacobs (horn), Ken Ichinose (cello), Sasha Gunchenko (double bass) and Hamish McKeich (conductor) at Public Trust Hall, 31 August 2023. Audio recorded by Phil Brownlee. Filmed and edited by Chris Watson for SOUNZ. Film funded by NZ On Air.
--
Further information about the composer biographies associated with these films can be discovered at sounz.org.nz
Facebook: @SOUNZnz
Instagram: @sounz_nz
TikTok: @sounz_nz
#nzmusic
