Jillian Graham

Anyone who's interested in Australian music history will want to read Jillian Graham's Inner Song, a Biography of Margaret Sutherland. But I have more than a casual interest in the 20th century history of music in Melbourne because it was the era of my piano teacher, the prominent concert pianist Valda Johnstone (1914-2007). She was a contemporary of the notable Australian composer and performer Margaret Sutherland, and from my archive of VJ's concert programs, I know that they performed on the same program at least once...

VJ also had the sheet music for Sutherland's Second Suite: Chorale Prelude, Mirage, Lavender Girl, The Quest (published by Allens). It had the performance timing noted on the front cover so she must have performed it somewhere, maybe on radio. (She was a regular on ABC 3LO and on NZ radio when she toured New Zealand.) VJ had a handwritten score for 'Mirage' too. I donated it to the State Library of Victoria after her death, along with the rest of VJ's papers.

With co-pianist Phyllis Batchelor (1915-1999), VJ also performed, at least once that I know of, a composition of Sutherland's. (VJ had a huge repertoire, and as you can see from the sheet music deposited at the SLV, she liked playing modern compositions.) This typewritten program shows that Sutherland's piece was a Pavane for two pianos— for an 'Afternoon of Music' in 1965. Held at the home of Mr and Mrs John Doyle in Normanby St, Kew, it was a performance for an award in the name of the music critic for The Age, Dorian Le Gallienne, who was also a composer. (I have a program for a concert held at the Kelvin Hall (later the Playbox Theatre that includes his composition for two pianos called 'Legend').

#Digression: When I was a teenager, I went twice with VJ to recitals held in private homes. Do people still offer their homes as performance spaces like this, I wonder?

***

Margaret Sutherland AO OBE (1897 – 1984) was a composer, performer and activist for the musical arts community, playing an important role in lobbying for our Melbourne Arts Centre when the site was at risk of development. Despite periods of time when her output was limited, (and a disappointing number of lost scores, how did that happen??) — as you can see from a partial list of her 90 works at Wikipedia, she was a prolific composer, best-known perhaps for her symphonic poem 'Haunted Hills', which you can hear at You Tube here.

As Jillian Graham explains in this comprehensive biography, Sutherland composed across all forms, including a symphony called 'The Four Temperaments'; concertos like this one for violin and this concertino; an opera called ''The Young Kabbarli'; poetry set to music; solo, duet & trio pieces including sonatas; and a large oeuvre of chamber music such as this String Quartet No 1.

TO read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/04/15/inner-song-2023-by-jillian-graham/… (más)