City Of London Festival

City of London Festival

The Froebel Gallery is pleased to be supporting the performance of a work by composer Ron Nagorcka for harpsichord, didgeridoo and Australian bush sounds.

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a unique synthesis of sounds from European and Australian indigenous culture

Centenary of Federation

Friday 29 June 2001, at 8 pm

Bear witness to how the first harpsichord came to arrive at Sydney Cove. Aptly and chillingly set in the Old Bailey, where John Grant was condemned to death in May 1803.

Readings from the diaries of John Grant alternate with baroque harpsichord music and a specially commissioned work with didgeridoo and Australian bush sounds by Ron Nagorcka.

For The Term of His Natural Life is part of the Clifford Chance Free International Series. Telephone 020 7377 0540 for more information.

The Defence
Georg Friderick Handel 1685-1759
Prelude from Suite No. V, "The Harmonious Blacksmith"

My dearest Mother
J.S. Bach 1685-1750
Prelude No. 24 in b minor BWV 893

Buying rum in San Salvador
J.S. Bach
Fugue No. 24 in b minor BWV 893

The arrival at Sydney Cove
Domenico Scarlatti 1685-1757
Sonata in d minor K 33

Unwelcome at Governor King’s garden party
Domenico Scarlatti
Sonata in d minor K 32

The Second Trial
Pietro Domenico Paradies 1707-1791
Presto from Sonata No.X in d minor

Norfolk Island, a place for troublesome convicts
Georg Friderick Handel
Air with Variations from Suite No.V, "The Harmonious Blacksmith"

Tea in Captain Symmonds’ cabin
J.S. Bach
Prelude No.15 in G BWV 884

An encounter with some natives
Ron Nagorcka, born 1948
This Beauteous Wicked Place, a work for harpsichord, didgeridoo and Australian bush sounds commissioned by Elizabeth Anderson, with the assistance of the Australia Council, the Australian Government’s Arts Funding and Advisory Body. Listen to a sample of This Beauteous Wicked Place, mp3 / Realaudio.

The newly-appointed Governor Macquarie visits Mrs Grant in London
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756-1791
Variations on "Ah vous dirai je, Maman" K 265

The Pardon
J.S. Bach
Fugue No.15 in G BWV 884

John Grant was the first person to bring a harpsichord to Australia. A disagreement with the guardian of the woman he loved lead to his conviction at the Old Bailey. After a petition to King George III, signed by 38 important people of the City of London, the death sentence was commuted to transportation for the term of his natural life to the penal settlement of New South Wales.

official website of City of London Festival

more about Ron Nagorcka