ROSS HARRIS (b.1945): Symphony No. 2 for Soprano and Orchestra, Symphony No. 3.

Description: Harris' Second is a collaboration with the writer Vincent O'Sullivan, whose poems evoke the doomed love of a deserting soldier and a woman, set against the hopelessness of war. The work is cast in four-movement form and is basically tonal, with an aggressive scherzo (shades of Shostakovich here) interrupting the nostalgic longing of the second, slow movement and leading to a resigned, tragic finale. The Third was inspired by the paintings of Chagall, with their frequent musical motifs, and the painter's Klezmer and folk musicians are evoked through a colorful, kaleidoscopic tapestry of motifs from which details are drawn and explored at leisure as the work progresses. Texts included. Madeleine Pierrard (soprano), Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra; Marko Letonja.