Ten years ago, discussing the bringing together of contemporary composers and an audience, Christopher Blake told me that the solution was one of balance, "so that the music has a relevance to a reasonably large group of people".
This philosophy has served Blake well in a substantial catalogue of orchestral
works, including a symphony and concertos for piano and violin.
Blake's musical language is relatively conservative, with
a distinct Lilburn lineage; behind the notes, references range from poet Charles Brasch and painter Philip Clairmont to Maori creation legends and our inevitable, inescapable landscape.
Angel at Ahipara, featuring the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra strings under Kenneth Young, offers four orchestral works that Blake calls his Northland Panels, after McCahon. Individually, however, the pieces have been inspired by the elegiac Northland photographs of Robin Morrison.
