Genevieve Lacey is particularly familiar with the idea of birdsong as a creative source, having recorded an entire album that uses the song of the pied butcherbird as its principal theme. Here Lacey performs a work by the same composer, Hollis Taylor’s Absolute Bird Concerto. A combination of found sound, field recordings and live music, it conjures up the unmistakable soundscape of the Australian bush. Lacey tackles one of Vivaldi’s most fiendishly difficult yet effortlessly beautiful examples of birdsong, with his Concerto in C Major. Jean-Féry Rebel’s Les élémens astounds with attacking strings and evokes the flocking of birds as a chaotic dance. Also included is idiosyncratic contemporary American composer Moondog’s Bird of Paradise. Conductor Paul Kildea has worked extensively across Australia and Europe, held artistic posts at the Aldeburgh and Perth festivals and is a former Artistic Director of London’s Wigmore Hall. After returning to Australia in 2017, he was appointed as the Artistic Director of Musica Viva Australia. PROGRAM MOONDOG Bird of Paradise TAYLOR/ROSE Absolute Bird REBEL Les élémens VIVALDI Concerto for Recorder and Orchestra in C RV 444 FEATURING Paul Kildea, conductor Genevieve Lacey, recorder Jim Atkins, sound design